Legend: Book 3: In The Land of the Dead
by Herr Wozzeck
Summary: Thrust into a world of strange sights and other people, Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi find themselves separated from Willie and Kuranga in a world unlike any they have ever seen. Book 3 of Legend.
1. Chapter 1: Lost in a Strange Land

Ayup. We ended the last book on a cliffy. Resolution time!

So here's the start of the next book of this epic!

* * *

Chapter 1: Lost in a Strange Land

The first thing Ike felt upon regaining consciousness was, surprisingly, nothing much.

The mercenary grumbled before opening his eyes, finding himself staring up at a strange expanse of auburn above him. He felt waves tickle his pant legs lightly, but other than that he found that he was completely dry.

Sitting up, the blue-haired man found himself at the banks of what looked to be a vast, expansive river with the other end seeming to be lost in a strange, ethereal mist. Groaning, the man looked around to find Ragnell on the ground next to him, the orange blade shimmering in the faint light that seemed to illuminate the shore.

_Well, at least my blade's here,_ thought Ike as he stood up and walked over to his blade, holding it up in the air and thinking about how lucky he was to have his sword back before letting it rest on his shoulder.

Azure eyes darted this way and that, seeing for any signs of his friends. Unfortunately, none of them were there. He knew that by then Willie would have woken up, Maria probably would have found him, and Kuranga would have detected his presence, so he knew that wherever he was, he was alone for then.

A great surge of worry flew up in his being at this moment, however, as he realized that Maria was still with child.

"Oh, no..." said the mercenary softly. "Maria! Maria!"

Ike ran alongside the bank of the river, calling out Maria's name frantically as he ran in whichever direction he felt like running. When he found no success in his search for the cat laguz a few minutes later, he eventually stopped running and dropped down to the ground again, groaning in dissapointment.

It was going to be a very long day for poor Ike, and the mercenary knew this as he laid there and panted as hard as he could. He knew he could not give up, no matter how tempting that proposition seemed to him at the moment.

Standing back up, he looked around him again, finding no response from the immediate area.

Slowly, the mercenary walked along the river bank, calling out Maria's name systematically as he walked by the riverbank.

* * *

Eventually, he found himself going nowhere in his search for Maria, and he sat down on the riverbank and groaned in frustration.

He wished he knew where Maria was. The fact that the cat laguz might be under immense torture was something that was not far from the mercenary's mind at the moment. The mysterious dissapearance of both Maria and Fiordiligi was unsettling to him, but he was more worried about Maria. He wondered where she was, and if she was okay, and if she was all right, how their baby was doing safe within her womb. All of these thoughts were causing him immense stress at the moment.

As he was thinking about all of the things that Maria could have been doing, he looked around and saw something not too far off from where he was that was approaching him. As the figure drew closer, however, Ike recognized the blonde hair and the dress from a distance.

"Fiordiligi?" asked the mercenary.

There was a short silence as the figure turned around, emerald eyes connecting with his sapphire ones. The figure's eyes seemed to brighten up, and then suddenly out of the light mist she came out, and Ike saw it was indeed Fiordiligi.

"Ike!" cried the lady as she literally tackled Ike to the ground. "You're all right!"

"Of course I am," he said as he sat up, Fiordiligi still grabbing his waist. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," replied the lady as she let go of Ike's waist and sat next to him. "Where's Willie?"

"I haven't seen anybody else anywhere," replied the mercenary. "Have you seen Maria?"

"No," said Fiordiligi. "Which means we're on our own here..."

"Not for too much longer, scum of hell!"

After this cry, Ike and Fiordiligi both abruptly stood up, Ike brandishing Ragnell quickly as Fiordiligi ran behind him.

And then, out of the thin mist walked a young man who looked to be no more than in his twenties. The stranger, however, had a huge burn that extended across his entire body. As he walked towards them with a sword in hand, the exposed, tender flesh shone brilliantly, highlighting the blackened spots of flesh that was visible all over his body. The sight would have grossed out many beyond belief, and all of a sudden Fiordiligi felt her head become light as air as all of the color left her face.

"Oh... my..." she gasped as Ike's eyes widened.

The lady was unable to say anything else; Ike turned and held his arms out to Fiordiligi just in time to catch her as she fell towards the sand. Quickly, he looked back to the approaching figure, finding himself staring at the figure as he slowly laid Fiordiligi down onto the sand.

"Wh-who the hell are you?" asked Ike loudly.

"That's none of your business, mister!" cried the man. "All I know is that you shouldn't be here right now. Now go back to the circle where you came from!"

"Circle?" cried a now even more confused Ike. "What're you talking about?"

"I'm not warning you again!" cried the figure with the burn. "Go back to your circle and I won't send you deeper into the pit!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" screamed Ike, who was more confused than ever. "What pit are you talking about? What circle are you talking about? Where the hell am I? Why the hell do you have that burn all over you?"

"Ha, you just lost your chance!" said the man with the burn all over his body, twirling the blade in his hand once. "Now, you're coming with me, even if I have to make you!"

With this, the man slashed at Ike. Despite the fact that the mercenary got no warning to this action, he managed to block it with Ragnell, the orange blade glinting in the mist before Ike jumped away. The young man with the burn all over his body made to slash at Ike again, but the mercenary dodged this deftly now that he knew he was in a fight.

Ike then slashed at the young man, but when the blade came across his flesh there were no signs of bleeding or that a wound had even opened.

"What the...?" whispered Ike under his breath as he saw that.

This second of abstraction cost Ike just a little bit as he found himself suddenly getting kicked in the chest. The mercenary was sent to the ground, but he managed to roll out of the way of the blade that was then trying to slash him. The mercenary successfully dodged this attack, and he moved to kick the stranger's legs out from under him.

This, Ike managed to do successfully, and the mercenary quickly stood up as the strange man took a hold of his footing.

The two of them traded blows after a snarl from the man with the burn. As Ike blocked the blows being sended his way, he found that the young man showed no signs of slowing down. Ike decided to see if he could take advantage of the rapid strokes his opponent was delivering upon him.

Ike jumped out of the way of the multiple blows, his opponent stumbling forward as a slash missed quite awkwardly. Ike took this opportunity to bring Ragnell down on the young man again, but this time, the young man managed to turn around and place his blade in a blocking position just before the orange blade would have connected with his seemingly impenetrable flesh.

With this one blow, the two of them found themselves in a bladelock. Without wasting a second, Ike exherted all of the pressure he could against the young man. The bladelock was easily won by the mercenary, and then the man with the burn stumbled back so that he fell onto the ground after loosing his footing.

This gave Ike an opportunity to jump at the stranger, and he then proceeded to slam the sharp side of Ragnell against this stranger for quite some time, none of the blows having any visible effects on the opponent.

However, when Ike had finished bashing him, the mercenary breathed as the young man beneath him frowned at this display of dexterity.

Quickly, he slid out from underneath Ike's legs as a groan sounded from behind Ike. The mercenary turned to see Fiordiligi slowly sitting up and rubbing her head, and then back to see the young man with a burn standing in front of him with rage showing on his face.

"You've won this time!" cried the young man. "But next time, you're getting no mercy, because I'm bringing a friend!"

With this, the man with the burn darted off into the mist as Fiordiligi slowly stood up. The plit of Fiordiligi's steps on the sands of the riverbank was all that was heard for a while.

Fiordiligi cleared her throat, breaking the relative silence and sending Ike's gaze in her direction.

"What in the world happened?" asked Fiordiligi.

"Don't ask me," said Ike. "I don't know where we are, and that man certainly did not help anything."

"I see..." said the woman. "This is all very strange..."

"You're telling me this, Fiordiligi?" asked Ike. "I don't have a clue! That man was talking about circles and pits and how I shouldn't be here!"

"Oh, really?" asked Fiordiligi, rubbing her chin as she thought. "Hm..."

The two of them were silent as the lady tried to thin about where they could be. After a while of thinking, however, she shrugged.

"No, I would not know where we are," she said quaintly.

"Shoot," said Ike. "But we need to find the others."

"Yes," said Fiordiligi. "Let's go."

Ike could have sworn he had heard Fiordiligi say something completely away from who she normally was, but he shrugged it off as unimportant and the two of them walked down the riverbank whence Fiordiligi had come.


	2. Chapter 2: A Light in the Confusion

Yes, I know I should probably do _Twenty Warriors_ before this, but honestly, there's stuff here I want to take care of before I get to that. So without further ado, let's get it on with the next chapter of this epic.

* * *

**_Ike and Fiordiligi find themselves on a strange new land with only a strange man with a horrible burn all over his body to greet them with great hostility and no sign of their friends._**

**_The two adventurers, undaunted by their harsh welcome, decide to continue in the direction they were headed in, finding themselves lost and with no more clues about the locations of their friends than they started with._**

**_As they continue on their road to nowhere, the two of them find a place to rest..._**

Chapter 2: A Light in the Confusion

Ike sat down by the little pool they had found, taking care to lay Ragnell gently on its side as Fiordiligi sat onto the ground a little less carelessly.

The two of them had been journeying for quite a while when they found themselves arriving at a strange kind of pool by the river. They had decided to stop there as they had seen no traces of day or night pass in their location at all and the mist had not lifted. After what felt like several days of constant walking, the two of them desperately needed rest, food, and water, and all three of these would be met at the spring.

"My goodness," said Fiordiligi, voice hoarse from the lack of useage of her vocal cords and the lack of water. "I really need this..."

"I know," said Ike as he crawled towards the pool. "The fact that we're both still alive is a bit of a miracle."

"It is a miracle," reprimanded Fiordiligi, unabe to summon her harshest personality from lack of use of her voice. "What are you talking about, 'a bit'?"

"True," said Ike as he made it to the pool and cupped his hands inside the waters. "Oh, dear, I really need this."

As Ike was about to bring the handful of water up to his lips, however, he felt a strong burst of wind go right past him, and he could have sworn that he saw the form of a man in a black robe flying over the river that the two of them were looking on. A bewildered Ike looked after the strange sight long after it had dissapeared in the mist, and then he looked at Fiordiligi who had just stared after him as Ike did.

"What was that?" asked Ike.

"Do you think I know?" asked the lady angrily. "I'll be damned if I do."

Ike shook his head and crawled over to the pool again, cupping his hands in the clear fluid again and this time successfully bringing the water to his lips. The taste of water was fresh and tangy in his parched mouth, and he cupped his hands again for several more mouthfuls of water, each handful being all the more invigorating than the last.

When he looked to Fiordiligi, who was also drinking the water with absolute ferocity, he could not help but smile. He knew his friends were most likely not safe wherever they were, but at least with this he knew he had no worries of dying before he found his friends. The mercenary laid back, his arms acting as a pillow for his head as he looked at Fiordiligi drink from the pool.

As soon as Fiordiligi had taken her fill from the pool, she looked to Ike, a small smile on her face as she looked at him with a drunken gaze.

"That felt so good," she said, her voice sounding much more like the voice of the Fiordiligi that Ike was used to. "Jeez, Ike, we really need to rest."

Ike by this point was too tired to reply with words, instead choosing to nod as he closed his eyes and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

He was woken up by Fiordiligi's light nudging.

Groggily, Ike opened his eyes and groaned. He barely had time to register what was happening before Fiordiligi began to tug at his arm, forcing him to stand up sooner than he should have.

"Ike!" whispered Fiordiligi hurriedly as she slapped Ike softly on the cheeks to wake him up. "I think that man with the burn is here!"

The mercenary was woken up by Fiordiligi's little slaps, and when he looked at her briefly with confusion in his eyes.

"What?" asked Ike

"You heard what I said!" exclaimed Fiordiligi nervously. "Now go get Ragnell and let's get out of here before they find us!"

"All right, all right," said Ike, running over to the ground were his orange blade lay and grabbing it quickly.

As he did this, he felt his wrist get taken by Fiordiligi, and he had barely gotten a secure hold on his sword before he felt her pull him in a seemingly random direction. The mercenary made to protest when he saw a wood a short distance away in which the trees were clustered very close together. Seeing this as a hiding place, Fiordiligi quickly ducked into the woods, pulling Ike along by the wrist as she ran deeper into the cluster of trees. Finally, she stopped, panting against a tree as she took a moment to catch her breath.

"That... was close..." said the lady.

"Yeah, but what if that guy finds some way of luring us out?" asked Ike.

"I wouldn't worry about that," replied Fiordiligi as she stood up. "What we need to worry about now is getting any leads on where Maria is."

"Fiordiligi, are you sure?" asked Ike, concern ridden in his eyes as he asked the question again, this time being more thorough.

Before she could reply, a loud hawk call sounded above them, Ike covering his ears as he glared at Fiordiligi.

"I told you!" cried Ike angrily. "Now let's get out of here!"

Without waiting another second, Ike grabbed Fiordiligi's arm roughly before running into the forest as quickly as he could. As he ran, he could not help but find that there was no quick getaway for him at all. The hawk calls still rang throughout the forest loudly, resounding in their ears even as they tried their best to get away from the source. The mercenary was constantly bumping into trees to evade the calls, but not one went unheeded as the two of them ran, their ears losing themselves in the sheer volume of the calls. Due to this dilemma, Ike unwittingly ran out of the forest and into a clearing, the mercenary stopping almost as soon as the bircalls ended as they realized that they were now facing a familiar face.

From above flew a hawk laguz with brown feathers, the man with the burn across his entire body standing a short distance away from Ike and Fiordiligi. As the bird flew down, he transformed into his human state to reveal a hawk laguz with black hair on his head and a strange purple complextion to his skin that was uninviting to the eyes. His eyes were white, carrying a strange color on them that was both unsettling and yet somehow morbidly attractive. On the other side of the burned man stood a young woman with hair the color of grass who wore mage's clothing. She would have looked normal if not for the fact that her throat appeared to be slashed, the blood seemingly frozen as she looked at them with cold auburn eyes.

"We've got you now!" cried the man with the burn overzealously, unable to make any expression with his face burned the way it was. "You can't escape!"

"What the hell are you talking about, escape?" asked Fiordiligi, getting angrier by the moment. "We were never trying to escape!"

"That's what they all say before they get sent down!" said the man with the burn. "Guys, after him!"

Instead of a rush into battle, however, the burned man was met with a groan from the woman to his left, who shook his head and proceeded to walk towards Ike and Fiordiligi.

"I apologize for my friend's behavior," said the woman in a heavy accent. "He is very, very stupid."

"W-what? Agniezska!" cried the man with the burn in a tone of voice that indicated offense, turning to face the woman with his eyes glowing in shock. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Honestly, Andrew," added the hawk laguz on the other side of the man with the burn. "Can't you tell they're not dead yet?"

"Gregor!" asked the man with the burn angrily. "These people are from hell, I can tell!"

"You say that because you cannot read spirit signs right!" said the woman whose name was apparently Agniezska with a slight scoff.

"Hold on a minute!" cried Ike, waving his hands around as Fiordiligi stood there. "What the hell is going on here? Spirit signs? Hell? Dead? What's going on here? And why were you trying to catch us again?"

"Gee, thanks Andrew," said the hawk laguz. "You didn't even tell them where they are?"

"B-but...!" exclaimed the burned man, who stuttered constantly after the fact.

"I apologize for his rash actions towards you," said the grass-haired woman calmly. "This is a very strange case. Your spirit signs indicate that you are alive, yet to be here is strange..."

"Oh, just shut up and get to the point already!" cried Fiordiligi impatiently, pointing at the strangers accusatorily. "Where the hell are we?"

"You, my friends, are in the underworld," said the green-haired woman calmly. "Or, as some would like to call it, the land of the dead."

Ike looked at her confusedly, Fiordiligi simply taking a step back towards Ike to wonder what she had just said.

"The land of the dead?" asked Ike. "So, we're in the afterlife..."

"That is essentially it," said the hawk laguz with a wink.

"Wait a minute..." said Fiordiligi, suddenly noticing the markings on everybody. "So those markings...?"

"Oh, these?" asked the hawk laguz as he indicated his skin, the other man's burn, and the woman's slashed throat. "These are our death-scars. Every inhabitant of this place has one."

"Wait, so however you die is however you get scarred here?" asked Ike, he and Fiordiligi cringing a little as a disturbing thought came to the both of them.

"So that means..." said a slightly flustered Fiordiligi.

"I got poisoned, my friend here got burned alive, and my other friend got her throat slashed?" asked the hawk laguz with a glance. "That's the basic gist of it, yes."

"Oh, dear..." said Ike as a drop of sweat rolled down the side of his face. "I'm don't want to know what my father looks like..."

"But I don't get something," said Fiordiligi with an arm gesture. "Why aren't we absolutely drenched if we're supposed to be dead?"

"Water death?" asked the hawk laguz. "I would not worry about that. For some reason, your spirit sign says that you aren't even dead yet, so that's probably why you have no death scar."

"And there are other things that I do not understand!" added the lady quickly. "Why are we here where people are supposed to be dead? And why did this man try to send us back to hell?"

"It's a long story," said the woman as she walked over to the two living people. "We shall explain once we find a place to camp out."

"All right," said Fiordiligi. "How long before we go anywhere?"

"We wait for however long this guy can come up with an excuse as to why he made us escape base!" cried the hawk laguz, wings flaring behind him as he pointed at the man with the burn.

"B-but I thought they were from hell!" cried the burned man.

"That is why you taking your studies lightly is a bad thing," said the woman. "Anyways, I apologize. We still do not know each other yet, do we?"

"No," said Ike as the group of five walked on into the fog. "I'm Ike, and my friend is Fiordiligi."

"Pleasure to meet you," said the lady as she nodded.

"Same here," said the hawk laguz. "I'm Gregor, the woman is Agniezska, and the guy who tried to capture you here is Andrew."

"I see," said Ike as they walked on into the fog.

As they walked, Ike could not help but get the feeling that soon, he would be seeing his father again.


	3. Chapter 3: In This World

So, after that bit of 'oh, shit' that you should've seen coming from the title of this book anyways, we're going to cut around a little bit. Now, we're going to see how things are on Maria's end of the scale. So let's get going here and produce the next chapter of this epic.

Oh, and now I'm going to have to add a disclaimer, as there is an original character in this chapter who isn't my own original creation for once. So yeah, the character of Lyanna belongs to my good friend, RoyalFanatic, and she is not mine (even with the fact that I want to own everything about her).

* * *

**_Ike and Fiordiligi were quite shocked by the revelation that they were somewhere in the underworld rather than a strange new continent this time. As they followed Andrew, Gregor, and Agniezska away from the river which was next to the underworld, they find themselves amazed at the place they have arrived in._**

**_However, as they hear these statements, Maria's safety stays in the back of Ike's mind. Little did they realize they soon they would be reunited with Maria..._**

Chapter 3: In This World...

Maria woke up a little groggily, finding herself to be extremely tired. As she sat up and rubbed her eyes, she looked around her to find herself in a hut of rather simple composition similar to the one that she has lived in in her time on Greljedo. As she saw this, she brushed away a stray hair of lavender from her vision and looked about her to find nothing particularly spectacular about the place she was in.

As she looked around, a slight air of dissapointment crept into her being; she had gone all around the world with Ike, only to wind up back where she began at the end of it all. Feeling kind of stupid, she shut her eyes and let out a soft exhale.

The feeling within her was full, so she somehow got the reassurance that her baby was safe inside. However, she felt that she could not explain properly who the father was to her friends, the villagers of that small village on the coast of Gardelia where the sand was white and the oceans were shiny as a sapphire on display. She still felt she had to say something for her own dignity, however, and she knew that she would be all right back in her home.

She set her feet down on the ground beneath her, but even with her reduced senses she knew from her entire life that she had not stepped onto the sand of her home. Looking down, she found a strange black grass underneath her feet that was very dark in what she realized was a slightly dark room; darker than the huts back at the little village in Gardelia would allow, even at night.

It was then that the door opened, and a lantern illuminated the area such that Maria could see the haggard body of a young man whose black attire did a bad job of framing a gaunt frame. His eyes had glazed over quite a bit so that the strong color of his eyes was suddenly too hard to discern at all. The blonde hair on the top of the figure's head seemed very out of place when these images combined into a whole, and the overall result scared Maria in such a fashion that she screamed at the top of her lungs.

The figure's eyebrows leapt up, and he quickly set the lantern on a table close to where the bed was.

"Hold on a minute!" said the figure as he ran towards Maria. "Let me--!"

This backfired, however, as Maria kicked the thin man in the stomach, sending him reeling back as she made for the doorway.

However, at the door, she was met by the figure of a larger, somewhat more imposing man who had various wounds all over his body and a massive axe wound in his shoulder. Amber eyes gleamed at her as the terrified Maria slowly stepped backwards, seeing the auburn hairs that seemed to be streaked with blood.

"W... wha...?" asked Maria, barely able to stay conscious as the two men walked up to her.

"You seemed to be pretty badly hurt there," said the larger man, seemingly without noticing anything odd about her behavior. "Are you okay?"

"W... w... I... Wou..." stammered Maria, her jaws clenching tight as tears began to form in her lavender eyes.

"It's all right," said the much slimmer man as he patted Maria's shoulder comfortingly. "We aren't going to hurt you. Now take a deep breath."

Maria, still very terrified at the sight before her, nodded quickly, took an exaggerated inhale and exhale, and then looked at the two men before her, her body shaking slightly as she looked at them again.

"I wouldn't... worry about myself... if I were you..." said the depowered cat laguz, pointing at the two men in front of her. "What... about you...?"

The two men looked at each other before they let out a hearty laugh. This laugh was enough to pull the worst of Maria's fear and replace it with a slightly offended curiosity. Her ears suddenly perked up, a frown coming onto her face as they laughed at something they apparently had been grown used to.

"What're you guys laughing about?" asked the annoyed woman. "You both can't be alive right now! What's going on here?"

"Ma'am, we're already dead," said the larger man as he broke out of his laughter. "I wouldn't worry about us if I were you."

"Wait, _what_?" asked Maria, her face giving away shock as her hand flew by one of her ears.

"Exactly what he said," said the smaller man with a nod. "You're in the realm of the dead."

"What?" screamed an alarmed Maria, clutching her stomach as she yelled. "So I'm dead here?"

"No, wait, there might be more to it," said the larger man as both of his hands fell on her shoulders (Maria realized then that they were also really cold). "How did you get here?"

"I don't know..." said the female cat. "I was in a large body of water..."

The two men in front of her gave the cat laguz a strange glance before closing their own eyes and nodding.

"As we thought," said the blonde man with a serious expression on his face. "You're still alive, don't worry. But the question is, how did you get here?"

"I don't know," said Maria with a shrug. "There was this strange hand that came out of nowhere, and then I was swatted into the ocean..."

"Hm..." said the larger man, rubbing his chin after he heard this information. "Not another sign of demonic intervention..."

"Demonic intervention?" asked a confused Maria. "What is--?"

"Lloyd! Linus!" called out a female voice from outside. "Are you two all--"

At this, the door opened, and the two men looked to the door to reveal a young woman with short, shaggy hair the color of night walked in. She eyed Maria with eyes the brightest shade of pink as she entered the room. As this new person walked in, Maria noticed a particularly deep rope burn in her neck, and she gulped as she thought of how that would feel on her skin. The bright pink on her skirt dazzled Maria's eyes, however, and it was this stark change of color that caused her to be distracted as she heard a question but did not listen to the words.

"I'm sorry?" asked Maria.

"Are you okay there?" asked the woman back.

"I'm fine," said the cat laguz. "Actually, apparently I'm still alive here."

"Good to hear," said the woman as she shrugged. "At least you're not dead yet."

"But can I get back up to the world of the living, then?" asked the cat laguz, suddenly shocked that she found herself getting adjusted to such a bizarre sight.

"Until we find a way to do that, no..." said the woman in pink with a shrug. "But while you wait, we can take you somewhere where we'll be more than happy to provide you with a roof over your head and food to eat. How does that sound?"

"Oh, that sounds great," said Maria with a shrug. "But I'm not sure I should trust you on that..."

"Don't worry about it," said the thin man with a shrug. "You'll get used to it."

"Thanks... uh... just who are you guys?" asked Maria, pointing at everybody in the room with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Ah, I'm sorry," said the thin man as he bowed down to the woman. "My fault for not saying it sooner. I am Lloyd."

"I'm Linus," added the larger man with a nod. "And the rather strange girl here is Lyanna."

"Hey!" cried the outraged woman angrily. "I'm not that wierd!"

"Nice to meet you all," said Maria as she giggled at Lyanna's predicament. "I'm Maria."

"All right, Maria," said Lloyd with a friendly grin. "We should probably get to headquarters now. Lyanna, get one of those pidgeons to go right over to headquarters so that we can alert the commander of our status."

"All right," said the female, bowing and ducking out of the hut rather quickly.

"So, as for you two," said Maria, pointing at the two men in front of her. "How did you two die?"

"Oh, us?" asked Linus. "Trust me; it's a really long story, and we'll be here forever. I'll explain on our way over to the headquarters."

"All right, that's fine," said Maria as she shrugged lightly. "And Lyanna, what's with the rope burn?"

"Ah, I got lynched," replied Lyanna with a shrug. "You look like a cat laguz, so you probably know what the brand is..."

"Wait, so you're one of the branded?" asked Maria curiosly. "Where's your mark?"

The girl turned so that the left side of her neck was visible to Maria. There, the cat laguz saw a brand remarkably similar to Willie's brand, except that the brand was marred quite a bit by the rope burn that was on her neck. Maria nodded, eyes losing their glimmer as her glance hardened towards her.

"I guess you were from Tellius, then?" asked Maria. "God, those people are stupid."

"Ah, so you're one of the Greljedan lauz, then," said Lyanna as she turned around, a soft smile visible on her face and her pink eyes twinkling brightly. "Good to hear that you sympathise with my mark already."

"Especially me, since I'm pregnant with the brand..." said Maria with a slight nod as the playful gleam returned to her eyes.

"Wait, how'd you know that Tellius existed if you're from Greljedo?" asked Linus, throwing a confused glance at the cat laguz.

"It's a very long story," said Maria. "But anyway, you said we had places to go?"

"Ah, yes!" said Lloyd as he began to move around the hut, making sure there was nothing left in there. When he was done, he turned to them and nodded.

"All right, there's nothing more in here," said the blonde as he made for the door.

"All right!" said Maria, slapping Linus' shoulder merrily. "Let's get out of here!"

"Ow!" cried the larger man as he stepped away from Maria. "Watch the axe wound! It still hurts if you touch it!"

* * *

In another, somewhat more removed part of the underworld, a rather small wooden fortress stood rather low in the mist. The fortress had only one building and a wall of timbers around the perimiter.

Within the small building sat a rather aged man who was deep in thought. The hole in his abdomen was something he wished he could fix, but as it was there was nothing he could do to fix it at all. His otherwise somewhat majestic figure was hunched over a table, one elbow resting on it with his hand resting within the brownish hairs on the top of his hairs as he sat lonely in thought.

Across the room from him stood a rather tall man, a cold glance being all he could spare for the old man in the room as he leaned against the wall. The man had dirt cluttered all over his black garnments, a light patch of red hair also being covered with dirt. Scarlet eyes gleamed in the darkness of the underworld, the eyes being almost mournful in quality.

The two of them stayed in these positions for a considerable amount of time, neither of them daring to move as the figure that stood against the wall kept an eye on the only way into the room the two of them were in.

Finally, their wait was absolved, as the door opened and a fairly young man who was drenched with water came walking in, black robes trailing behind him as the two figures abruptly stood up, the two of them glancing at the man that had just walked in.

"Are they back yet?" asked the more mysterious man that had stared at the door the entire time.

"No," replied the young man in the wet clothes, brushing an equally wet strand of hair out of his face. "Those three are going to have to be punished when they come back."

"Well, you know that it's not the entire group's fault when Andrew is with them," said the man with the hole in the middle of his body. "Any reports from Lloyd?"

"They will be coming here shortly," said the man as he nodded. "He also has a person from the world of the living with them, so I wouldn't be too surprised if we finally see someone with no deathscars."

"Oh, great," said the more mysterious man as he shook his head slowly, the dirt still refusing to fly off of his person. "Not another demonic intervention..."

"Who would call them to this world anyway...?" asked the old man with a shrug.

"We'll find that out when the time comes," said the man with dirt all over his body. "For now, we wait for Andrew and the two people he dragged along with him to come back so we can give Andrew hell when he returns..."

The other two people in the room nodded, knowing what the third person was talking about and acknowledging it solemnly.


	4. Chapter 4: Souls Come Together

So after that, we find out that there are a bunch of people from FE7 who are making appearances in this book of the epic. Actually, make that everybody in the FE series in general and some people from this very epic itself. So keep an eye out for those appearances, and let's get on with the story!

And also, the music of Edgar Varese is f'ing intense. Do yourselves a favor and go check it out!

* * *

**_The two groups head for their stronghold at the same time, carrying their passengers from the realm of the living along. As they go, their guests tell the stories of their travels from Greljedo through Magvel to the underworld. Their journeys are heard very well by their respective parties, and they are listened to with the utmost importance._**

**_As they hear the stories of Ike, Fiordiligi, and Maria, nobody sees the great reunion between a man and his father that is soon to come..._**

Chapter 4: Souls Come Together

"And that is essentially the story of how we're down here," said Fiordiligi, sitting on a log around the campfire as she and Ike finished wrapping up the tale of their journeys across Greljedo and Magvel.

The other three sitting across from the fire nodded, Andrew nodding solemnly while Gregor and Agniezska nodded a little more assertively. The mist still hung over the landscape like a veil, but this time it was also just a little darker from the effects the moon had on this world.

"I see," said Agniezska. "Not quite the story of my assassination went wrong, but still quite strange, if you know what I mean."

"Assassination?" asked Fiordiligi. "Was this with you being in the Black Fang?"

"Yes," replied the woman with a nod. "I was assigned to kill a strange nobleman known for sneaking around at night and..."

"And...?" prompted Ike, causing Agniezska considerable duress as she looked around.

"It's pretty complicated," said Andrew with a shrug, the exposed muscle tissue flexing and still giving Fiordiligi a few chills down her spine as she saw the sight. "Let's just say it was about some stuff we really can't talk about."

"Okay," said Fiordiligi with a nod. "So what happened then?"

"Well, I got caught, of course," said Agnieszka. "And when I got caught, they slit my throat. But that knife must have been imbued with something, because I saw this crazy panorama of this world..."

"How did that happen?" asked Ike.

"Don't ask me," said the woman, her accent a little stronger now as she spoke. "I have no idea what that was. Even Hades himself cannot tell me about it."

"Okay," said Ike. "So then, Andrew is from Magvel and Gregor is from Greljedo, right?"

"You have that right," said Gregor. "I still wish my father had not locked me in the room with that man to poison me. And to think it was before the war that you two got caught up in..."

"I can't believe your father handed you in to those cultists!" said Fiordiligi, a brief temper flaring in her person. "Who did he think he was, sacrificing his own son like that?"

"I'm telling you, he was a very selfish bastard," said Gregor. "But, I heard that he's currently frozen in Cocytus right now, so he got what he had coming for him."

"Cocytus?" asked Ike. "What's that?"

"It's this frozen lake at the bottom of this underworld," replied Andrew. "All the people that betrayed others are sent there and they're frozen in."

"I see..." said Fiordiligi. "I am guessing that every level below here has a punishment of some sort?"

"Precisely," said Agnieszka.

"Yeah," said Andrew. "I hope those people that burned me at the stake are in that river of boiling blood right now..."

The mention of boiling blood made Fiordiligi wince slightly, but the curiosity still remained in there.

"Why did they burn you at the stake, anyway?" asked Ike, giving the burned man a glance of curiosity.

Andrew opened his mouth before he let out a sigh, turning away from the group to gaze off into the distance.

"Andrew?" asked Fiordiligi, concern riddling her voice.

"He gets uncomfortable talking about it," said Gregor with a shrug. "Maybe one day he'll tell you."

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel more comfortable," said Fiordiligi. "But I'll let you move at your own pace then."

Gregor suddenly stood up very abruptly, all eyes turning to him as he looked in a particular direction.

"What is it?" asked Agniezska.

"I can hear some people," said Gregor as he leaned closer to a certain direction. "It sounds like Lloyd, Linus, Lyanna, and... some girl named Maria?"

"Maria?" cried Ike, jumping up quickly. "Where?"

"It was over that way," said the hawk laguz, pointing in a certain direction. "Of course, I would not worry about it now, since--"

But before the dead hawk laguz could finish his sentence, the mercenary captain was already darting in that direction, leaving the three deceased individuals to wonder what Ike was raving about as Fiordiligi attempted to hoist the forgotten Ragnell so that she could take it to Ike later.

"What's his problem?" asked Andrew.

"If that's who I think it is, we should probably begin to move," said Fiordiligi. "Let's go."

And the woman was off, dragging Ragnell behind her as quickly as she could as the curious group went off in the direction that Gregor had pointed at.

* * *

Lloyd, Linus, Lyanna, and Maria were all walking through the forest rather slowly. The four of them had been walking for a short while, Maria telling the tale of her journeys across Greljedo and Magvel with her companions as they walked along. The other three listened intently to her story, and they were quite interested with what they heard as they walked along.

"And then we set sail on that ark that Baba Yaga built us, and then this hand came out and swatted me into the ocean. And, that's pretty much how I wound up here, I guess..."

"So that's your story, huh?" asked Linus.

"For the most part," said Maria. "So, you guys were with this 'Black Fang' group or whatever it was?"

"Yes," said Lloyd with a shrug. "We ended up being used, though. And the worst part is, Linus and I did not even know it until we were down here."

"Really?" asked Maria, her brows furrowing in curiosity as they walked on. "How do you know all this?"

"Hades, of course," said Lyanna. "We learn everything from him eventually."

"And why's he so important?" asked Maria, even more curious now.

"He's the king of the underworld, that's why," said Lyanna with a wink. "We all see him eventually when we're supposed to be dead."

"I see," said the cat laguz. "I wonder what else there is here..."

"Other than the ground beneath us where people get punished for their sins, no," replied Linus with a shrug.

There was a relative silence before a distant yelling was heard in the distance, the sound rapidly approaching them. The four of them stopped briefly to look ahead of them, Lyanna's hot pink eyes gazing into the distance more intently than the rest of them.

"Someone's coming," she said, grabbing the bow that was strapped to her back. "And he's pretty excited."

"Wait," said Maria, her hand resting on Lyanna's arm as the voice got closer and closer to the group.

"Maria!" the voice in the distance cried excitedly, a form beginning to appear that Maria recognized.

"Oh my..." said the depowered cat laguz, her eyes bulging wide as she broke into a run towards the voice. "Ike!"

"Oh, wait, Maria!" cried Lyanna.

But by then it had been to late, a young swordsman who apparently was still alive broke through the mist, and Maria jumped onto the man as he swung her around to a halt. Before anything else could be said by Maria's companions, they saw the cat laguz and the stranger crush their lips together, and the three of them decided it was as good a moment as any to stay out of their new friend's business.

When the two of them finally broke their kiss, the man pulled Maria into one of the tightest hugs she had ever felt in her life.

"Maria..." said the mercenary with a tinge of sadness in his voice. "I was so worried."

"Aw, come on Ike!" said Maria with a smile. "You know me. I'll be fine!"

"Yes, but with the baby and everything, I--!" said Ike before he felt Maria's hand promptly press itself against his lips.

"Don't worry about it," said Maria, deepening the hug a little.

The other three people sent more confused glances at each other, Lloyd finally bringing a fist to cough slightly, not enough to cause his throat pain but enough to gain Ike and Maria's attentions.

"I hate to break your little reverie, but who is this man?" asked Lloyd from behind Maria.

Ike looked up at Maria's companions before releasing her, confusion etching his face as his hard sapphire eyes laid down on them.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" said the cat laguz, turning around quickly to address her group. "Guys, this is Ike."

"I'm assuming he's the father?" asked Lyanna.

"H-hey!" said Ike, just a little embarrased at this statement. "No need to be so blunt!"

"Hm, I don't know about that, considering that you're the master of being perfectly blunt yourself..." said Maria teasingly, poking her lover in the abs as she giggled lightly.

"Hey!" cried a slightly outraged Ike.

"I was kidding!" said Maria with a sigh. "Anyways, these three are Lloyd, Linus, and Lyanna."

"Nice to meet you," said Lloyd, extending a hand which the mercenary took and shook quite slowly. He proceeded to shake the hands of the remaining two people in such a manner, but just as he had let go of Lyanna's hands more panting was heard behind them, and the three of them turned around just in time to find a hawk laguz standing in front of them, Maria gasping slightly at the sight of him.

"Oh, Gregor!" said Lyanna. "You had us scared for a moment there!"

"Wait," said Linus, his expression turning into a frown as Maria looked around confusingly. "You're supposed to be back at headquarters! What're you doing here?"

"Look, if you must know, some guy named Andrew took him and Agniezska over to try to capture me and my other friend since he thought we were from hell!" said Ike, his voice giving away a slight edge of annoyance.

"Wait, you met Gregor?" asked Lloyd as the man with the third degree burn came running into the scene.

"Yeah," said Ike. "And Andrew, and some other girl named Agniezska. Why, you--?"

"Ah," said Linus as he walked past Ike and Maria to walk over to the man with the burn. When Linus was there, he gripped the burned man pretty hard, the muscles on the smaller man's face grimacing without really succeeding at making a facial expression. "It's always this when you're involved, huh Andrew?"

"L-l-look, I c-can explain!" stammered Andrew, hissing at the pain that was being caused him by Linus.

"Wait!" cried Maria. "What in the world is going on here? Who are those two?"

"The hawk is Gregor," replied Lyanna into Maria's ear. "And the other is the resident troublemaker, Andrew. If my instinct is correct, then Agniezska will be showing up in a few minutes..."

And indeed, a young woman with brown hair walked into the scene. However, Maria thought she recognized the other person who was lugging something heavy around. When the two women walked into the area, they dropped their cargo, the two of them panting and glaring at Ike.

"Next time..." huffed Agniezska as Maria instantly recognized the other woman. "Don't forget... your sword..."

"Fiordiligi!" cried Maria excitedly as she jumped onto the blonde woman with such a force that the two of them were against a tree.

"Maria..." said the lady softly, barely daring to move. "You're okay as well!"

"Have you two seen Willie or Kuranga anywhere?" asked the cat laguz instantly.

Fiordiligi's emerald eyes diverted to the ground for a brief moment before they returned to Maria.

"I guess you didn't find them either, then," said Fiordiligi as she finally found the energy to stand back p.

"Oh," said Maria with a nod.

"So, Agniezska," said Lloyd as Maria Fiordiligi walked away from the tree. "Were you three planning on returning to headquarters?"

"Yes," said the woman as she had managed to catch her breath and nodded.

"Well, we all know what this means, right Andrew?" asked Lyanna, walking towards the burnt man and pinching the exposed muscle tissue in such a way that it caused Andrew to retreat his arm back before Lyanna pulled it back, her hand tightly gripping . "You're coming with us, whether you like it or not!"

"B-but Lyanna!" cried Andrew as the pain flew up in his arm. "I thought they were from hell!"

"And this is why you shouldn't fall asleep during Hades' lectures!" said Linus angrily. "We've told you time and time again to stay awake during them. And now, we've had enough of telling you the same damn thing over and over again!"

"And don't give us any of your excuses!" cried Lyanna accusatorily as Andrew opened his mouth to talk back. "We're not hearing them. You can take them to Master Jaffar later!"

And with this, Linus and Lyanna walked in the direction Ike and company had come from, dragging Andrew behind them as he howled in pain. Maria looked at the people that had stayed behind with a confused look on her face before shrugging.

"Is there something wrong with that guy?" asked the cat laguz innocently.

"For the most part, yes," said Lloyd. "Mainly that he is a troublemaker, and that he constantly falls asleep during lectures."

"He never had the heart for it, I guess..." added Agniezska.

"Anyway, we better get moving as well!" said Fiordiligi, pulling at Ike's cape and gesturing towards Ragnell. "And Ike, this time you better not forget about Ragnell, or so help me the goddess Sharotal I am going to give you the hardest slap you've ever recieved in your life!"

"Hey, give him a break!" said Gregor with a wave of his hand as Ike did what he was told. "He was caught up in the heat of the moment."

"That still doesn't forgive the fact that his sword is so damn heavy," said Fiordiligi with a look of death at the hawk laguz as the group began moving. "You try lifting that thing one day, and you'll have just as much luck as I do!"

"Oh, boy..." said Maria as a drop of sweat rolled down the side of her face. "We've all got somebody to be mad at, don't we?"

"I kind of agree with Gregor, though," said Ike. "I was so worried about you, Maria..."

"Hey, let's save the sappy stuff for later, okay?" asked Gregor, causing Lloyd to give him a curious look. After being looked at for a couple of seconds in this regard, the hawk turned around and gave Lloyd a confused glance back. "What?"

"You obviously missed the 'sappy stuff'," replied the unnaturally thin man with a wink of his glossed-over eye.

The rest of the trip was made in silence as they slowly caught up to Linus, Lyanna, and an Andrew who was now whimpering in pain at all of the dirt clinging to his exposed death scar.

* * *

Finally, the group walked over to a large wooden fencepost. The wood was simple, and the intent seemed to be simple as well as there was a large opening in there large enough for Baba Yaga's ark to sail through. Linus and Lyanna dragged a now sobbing Andrew through the opening, the three people that were still alive looking around as they walked into the area guarded by the fence.

As they walked up to a small wooden building within this complex, Ike was suddenly reminded of his home back in Tellius. The composition of the building was almost exactly the same as it was back at the headquarters in Crimea, and the border surrounding the headquarters from the rest of the underworld unbelievably similar in construction. Ike could almost see Rolf playing off in a corner with Shinon watching and seeming like he wanted to do something else as Boyd hacked relentlessly at a practice dummy not too far away.

Thinking of the headquarters had Ike thinking about whether Mist and Mia were all right. He had seen them off on a small boat back to Tellius just before Eirika and Seth were wed, and he had told them to avoid going straight. He had begun to wonder if they had returned to Tellius yet. As he thought of this, he felt he could ask this 'Hades' person about that before they did anything else.

However, his short little reverie was cut short as Linus rang a bell that was close to the door of the building. Outside of the building burst two figures, one of them wearing a black uniform that was covered in dirt, and the other was one person that Ike realized he was all too familiar with. The man in the black uniform turned to Linus and nodded, but then the other person's gaze was fixed on Ike when he turned to look at the mercenary.

"Ah," said the man in the black uniform as he walked over to Andrew. "I guess you found him, then?"

"Yep," said Linus with a shrug. "He's been behaving pretty badly. You know what to do, Jaffar."

"B-b-but I--!" cried Andrew, the sting of the strange man grabbing his arm roughly getting to his ego.

"Ike?" asked the other, more quiet person that had come out with the man in the black uniform. The question was asked almost with an air of disbelief, and all of the dead people in the group assumed a facial expression of either curiosity or surprise at this question.

"Soren?" asked Ike, looking at the mage's drenched robes once more as the realization hit him harder with each passing second. "Is that you?"

"Ike!" cried the mage, running down to the mercenary and almost tripping on his robes as he nearly tackled the larger mercenary to the ground, his arms hanging around the mercenary tightly.

There was a tender and yet very shocked silence as Ike wrapped his own arms around the mage slowly, all of the dead people either showing their shock with hanging jaws or widened eyes. Even Andrew was silent, which was something considering that the man in the dirt-covered clothing was still holding the burnt man's arm with as harsh a deathgrip as any.

"What the hell?" asked Linus.

"What?" asked Ike with a shrug.

"W-what the hell are you asking us for?" asked Gregor, equally shocked that Ike was treating things as if nothing strange had happened. "We've never seen this guy crack an emotion at all, and yet here you are, making him fall all over your feet to kiss them! Even worse, he probably barely knows who you are!"

"Correction, Gregor," stated Soren matter-of-factly. "This man was my friend from childhood."

"Wait, this is _the_ Ike?" asked Andrew, somehow able to speak without stuttering.

"Yes, I'm _the_ Ike," replied the slightly peeved mercenary.

"Oh, so you must be Soren!" said a rather buoyant Maria.

"Yes, we've heard quite a few tales about you..." said Fiordiligi with a smile.

"Wait, who are you two girls?" asked the normally stoic tactician as he gave the two girls a curious yet very serious look.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Ike. "Soren, this is Maria and Fiordiligi. I've been meeting them on my travels..."

"I see," said Soren, giving them both a stern looking over. "Fiordiligi seems like she can hold her weight, but Maria looks a little too fat for comfort."

"Fat?" cried a suddenly outraged Maria. "Fat? I'm carrying Ike's baby in this extra space and you're calling me fat?"

Maria's loud exclamation caused Soren to give Ike a very, very disturbed look, Ike stepping back slightly and preparing from the storm that he half expected from Soren.

"You got her pregnant?" asked the mage angrily. "Do you know what you've done to her? You know better than that, Ike! Your father would be--!"

"Oh, shut up!" cried Fiordiligi indignantly, smacking the side of Soren's head. "She isn't even from Tellius; we of Greljedo view the branded better, and besides, they already talk like a married couple sometimes!"

"W-what?" asked a flustered Maria. "But we haven't even started arguing yet!"

"Not imporant," said Soren with a slight frown. "The fact is that you two are engaged in is strange behavior for a man and a woman to be partaking in. I mean, you two are apparently not even married!"

"Do you think that matters?" asked Ike sternly. "You always knew how I always was!"

"Very true," said Soren with a nod. "But whether this is a beorc or a laguz, you still made a mistake."

"Oh, get off of his case already!" cried Agniezska as she brushed a strand of grass-colored hair away from her face. "It is the dawn of a new life!"

"And besides, this bickering is getting you nowhere," said Lloyd, turning to the man with the black uniform. "What in the world is--?"

And before Lloyd could go any farther, the doors of the building burst open, and out strolled a rather burly man with aged brown hair on his head and a scar that went across his eye. In his stridence, he exposed a rather large hole in his abdomen that made no attempts from hiding in the man's rather large armor.

"Enough of this yelling!" cried the man. "All of you will calm down and tell me what the matter is now!"

"Father...?" asked a wide-eyed Ike, walking forward so that he could look into the commander's eyes.

All of a sudden, the rather burly man who was apparently the commander of this group of people attained a much softer expression on his face as he looked at the blue swordsman in wonder.

"Ike...?" asked the captain dumbfoundedly. "Is that you?"

"Father!" cried Ike, the young man running for the large man and nearly tackling him to the ground as the son embraced his father, the two of them smiling the broadest smiles anyone had ever seen.

"C-commander Greil?" asked Andrew.

This comment was met with a smack to the back of Andrew's head from Lyanna.

"Shut up!" she whispered between barred teeth, Andrew working his jaw open and closed in pain.

However, neither the commander nor his son were to be disturbed, for it was at least a full minute before the father finally stood up, Ike still hanging on tightly.

"You've got no idea how much I've missed you..." said Ike softly.

"Man, do you know how _I've_ felt in my time here?" asked Greil in reply. "I was worried sick that you were all right. But Soren's here now, and he told me about your exploits as leader of the mercenaries."

"Yeah," said Ike with a nod. "And now, Tellius is at peace again."

"Hence why you went around the world?" asked Greil, his face suddenly much more serious. "Why would you leave the land of your birth? Why? I don't understand the logic of you, the leader of a band of mercenaries, would leave on a quest to see the world!"

"Father..." said Ike, suddenly noticing something about the tone of voice Greil was using. "I..."

"So what if he did?" asked Maria, suddenly walking forward and presenting herself to her lover's father. "He just happened to see other lands just in time to help out with some of the worst fights I've ever seen! While you were down here doing... whatever you do down here, he was fighting a cult bent on resurrecting a dark god and fighting another person bent on ruling an entire continent! Sure, there's no logic in leaving, but it wound up being for the better for everybody else! So there!"

"My, you're a feisty one," said Greil. "Who are you?"

"I'm Maria," said the cat laguz with a nod. "And I've been with Ike ever since he washed up on Greljedo. And I'm also bearing his child."

"What?" roared the commander, glaring at Ike. "You got a woman pregnant? I taught you better than this!"

"Hey, it's not his fault that Maria's friend ran off over some stupid misunderstanding!" said Fiordiligi angrily as she came up as well. "And besides, I've never seen two people that were more in love than this!"

"That is besides the point!" cried Greil. "You're not even _married_ yet!"

"Exactly!" said Ike. "That just proves their point; trust me, if I could, I'd marry her right here, right now! I'd do anything for Maria,and I've don't !"

Greil looked at his son with a great amount of surprise, Ike half expecting to be slapped across the face for saying what he did.

However, what the commander did next confused everyone; he chuckled and patted his son on the back.

"That's my boy!" said Greil, suddenly becoming merry again and confusing Maria and Fiordiligi as he walked towards the door of the headquarters. "Let's go inside! We've got a lot to talk about!"

Before anybody could protest, Greil put his arms across Ike and Maria's shoulders and walked them straight into the headquarters, leaving the rest of the group outside with confused expressions on their faces.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Gregor as he shook his head lightly.

"Honestly, I don't know," said Fiordiligi with a shrug. "At least this all ended well."

"Yeah..." said Andrew with a shrug before the man in the black robes tightened his grip on the young man.

"Don't think this means you've gotten out of your punishment!" he said gravely.

"B-but Jaffar!" cried Andrew in anguish. "I-!"

"No buts," said the man whose name was apparently Jaffar stoically. "This is serious, Andrew!"

"Okay, all that aside, we should probably go in," said Linus, looking to the rest of the group and nodding.

"Of course," said everybody else, and then they all walked through the doors into the headquarters, Jaffar dragging Andrew in by his arm as it was silent outside once again.


	5. Chapter 5: The Compound

Okay, after that emotional reunion scene, we're met with a little more character (and situational) development throughout this chapter. I promise, the good stuff will be coming at the end of this and in the next chapter!

* * *

Chapter 5: The Compound

Andrew sat outside of the building in the compound, still looking rather glum and trying with all of his willpower not to rub the spot that he had been hit, looking down at the ground unable to form facial expressions at all.

The beating was, as usual, incredibly harsh. The act of taking the switch was not that bad, Andrew knew, but the burn amplified the pain thousands of times over. And thinking about how it would be so much better if he had not been burned to death only made the poor man a little more depressed. So he had often turned to sitting outside of the compound thinking of what could have been.

It was this state in which Fiordiligi found the poor man as she was walking outside. She looked at the burned man again, still finding herself not being used to the burn at all. However, she could not help but feel that something was wrong with the image she was seeing. Noticing this, she sat down on the log that Andrew was sitting on at that moment in time, gracing her hands over her dress to flatten some wrinkles that had formed in the fabric.

"Are you all right?" asked the lady to Andrew.

"No..." said the burned man with a groan. "That damn switch always hurts more when your entire body is your death scar..."

"I'm sorry about that," said Fiordiligi.

"Don't worry about it," said Andrew with a wave of his hand. "It's not your fault. And if I could ever get my hands on the people whose faults it is..."

"What?" asked Fiordiligi as the man's sentence tapered off.

A silence commenced as Andrew looked to Fiordiligi, his eyes gleaming in a strange kind of anger that the lady was unfamiliar with.

"You said you were from Greljedo, right?" asked Andrew somewhat trepidly.

"Yes," said Fiordiligi. "What of it?"

"Your religion is supposed to be all about love between people and harmony, right?" asked Andrew.

This question elicited a gasp of surprise from Fiordiligi, but she quickly collected herself and coughed lightly.

"Yes, that is true," said Fiordiligi with a nod as she looked to the ground. "Sharotal regards all kinds of love with grace, dignity, and respect. I would know that; I met the lady during my travels."

"I thought so," said Andrew with a nod as he looked sadly to Fiordiligi. "I wish I was born on your continent."

"Why?" asked Fiordiligi, turning to give a confused look at the eyes that shined with such sadness in them.

"Because then this wouldn't have happened..." said Andrew, gesturing at his body with his hands and looking down at the ground dejectedly.

A hint of frustration appeared in Fiordiligi's mind, and then a frown wore itself on the lady's face. As intent emerald gazed into sad mahogany, she felt a tinge of determination come up to figure out what had happened.

"Explain," said Fiordiligi sternly.

"I..." began Andrew. "I..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Fiordiligi, a sense of shame entering her being and the lady suddenly looking at the ground. "I shouldn't have been so direct..."

"Don't worry about it," said Andrew, his voice slightly reassuring. "It's just... hard to talk about..."

"Well, you don't have to tell me now..." said Fiordiligi.

"No, I should anyway," said Andrew with a shrug. "You're the one who insisted that I do. I was born in Renais, where I then began to train for the royal knights."

"Hey, I was in Renais on my travels!" said Fiordiligi suddenly. "Did you know anyone there?"

"You might not know anybody I know," said Andrew with a shrug.

"Try me," said the lady with a nod and a reassuring smile.

"Well, there was this one person I knew named Seth..." said the burned youth with a shrug.

"Seth?" asked Fiordiligi. "He's Renais' highest-ranking knight, and is now queen Eirika's husband! Of course I know who he is!"

"So he married, huh?" asked Andrew with a slightly depressed tone in his voice. "That settles it then. He's straight as a rock."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Fiordiligi, suddenly very confused.

"I asked you about the goddess Sharotal," said Andrew with a heated glare. "Connect the dots."

And then the realization hit the woman with the force of a thousand Elwind spells slicing into her at once.

"No..." said Fiordiligi. "You're... homosexual?"

"There you go," said Andrew with a sigh. "Seth and I actually experimented on each other once while I was still alive. We were young then..."

"So then people found out about this involvement and what happened then?" asked Fiordiligi.

"Seth wasn't charged with anything," said Andrew, rage shaking in his voice. "And they just tied me up."

"Oh, I hope Seth didn't leave you alone there!" said Fiordiligi, hoping that Seth had stuck to his ideals.

"Seth wouldn't give up on anybody he cares about like that," said Andrew with a slight chuckle. "Even to the end, he was trying to either put himself on the same playing field as me or to try to get me out of the situation I was in. But, angry village mobs don't allow that, I guess..."

"So they burned you?" asked the lady.

"On a stake and everything," said Andrew with a few hand gestures. "He didn't talk about me, did he?"

"He didn't," replied Fiordiligi solemnly. "Either it was too hard a memory for him to take, or he's moved on..."

"I'd guess the latter..." said Andrew. "I mean, to hear of him getting married..."

"Andrew?" asked Fiordiligi, looking at the burnt man as he choked on his own words.

"I'm sorry," said Andrew, his voice slightly shaking. "I cared about Seth a lot when he was still experimenting with me. He cared a lot about me too. It's just... ya know?"

Fiordiligi nodded, a tear welling in her left eye.

"It must be... strange..." said Fiordiligi softly.

"Aw, don't cry there," said Andrew soothingly.

At this, the burned man moved to brush away Fiordiligi's tears with a thumb. Despite the fact that Fiordiligi noticed a tensing of muscle tissue in Andrew's arm, she appreciated the gesture with a nod

"I'm actually kind of happy for him," said Andrew. "He got to do what I didn't... And for that..."

Fiordiligi nodded, hearing the remainder of his sentence in the silence that surrounded them shortly afterwards.

"I see..." said the lady softly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't intrude on your past life..."

"Don't worry about it," said the burned youth with a shrug. "At least I know now that the story had a happy ending for one of us. Thanks, Fiordiligi."

"No problem..." said Fiordiligi softly, an image of Willie suddenly popping in her mind for no apparent reason.

And that was when she realized that she sorely missed the Cockney boy greatly. She looked up to the sky as Andrew looked at her, the ladywondering what was happening to him as she was sitting in the underworld safe and sound. Andrew did not seem to mind the daydreaming, and he too looked up to the sky.

* * *

"And that's how we wound up here. We've been through a lot, I'm telling you."

"Indeed you have. I never thought any children of mine would go on such strange adventures."

Greil, Ike, Soren, Jaffar, and Maria all sat inside of the building, the four of them talking about Ike's adventures on Tellius, Greljedo, and Magvel. The wooden table they were sitting around was rather quaint for talking with other people, although Maria found she could not take her eyes off of the hole in the center of Greil's torso no matter how hard she tried. There was something disturbing to her about how he was still able to talk despite having a hole in his body, but most of all, she was fascinated by how such a death scar could be left so intact.

"I agree..." said Jaffar simply.

"So, that's our end," said Maria. "What about you three?"

"Us?" asked Greil with a shrug. "I came down here after being defeated by the Black Knight, as we know here. And then I ran into Jaffar, Linus, Lloyd, Agniezska, and Andrew. They had started a little vigilante group, but they were kind of tired of running around trying to send ghosts back to the underworld, so I took charge and turned it into a fully fledged mercenary group in the underworld."

"Wait a minute!" said Ike quickly. "Why would there be mercenaries in this place?"

"I'm guessing that nobody told you?" asked Jaffar as he leaned against one of his arms on the table.

"No," said Maria with a shake of her head.

"Typical," said Soren coldly. "As soon as Andrew gets in trouble they forget to explain how things work to the newcomers..."

"And how do they work?" asked Ike.

"The underworld is a really large place," said Jaffar. "You're currently at the top of it, where all of the virtuous souls reside."

"Wait, so the evil people get punished?" asked Maria.

"Essentially, yes," said Soren. "There are eight circles of land underneath us that constitutes hell, where the wicked are punished for all eternity."

"Oh, dear," said Ike as he looked to the ground. "I think I might know a few people down there!"

"Fiordiligi's going to be pretty happy when she hears about that..." added Maria with a mischievous grin.

"I wouldn't say 'eternity', though," said Greil. "Those spirits are capable of fleeing from there."

"What?" asked Ike, he and his lover suddenly jumping up in their seats. "How?"

"Let's say some spirits are peskier than others, and that some are just so crazy they manage to escape," said Soren cooly. "Also, add in the fact that when they do escape from hell, they usually escape to the world of the living..."

"So they basically do what they were doing while they were alive?" asked Maria.

"Exactly," said Jaffar.

"Ah," said Ike. "I remember that Gregor told me about Cocytus at the bottom of hell, I'm guessing?"

"That's right," said Greil with a wink.

"But what happens when those spirits escape?" asked Maria.

"That's is where we come in," replied Soren. "We stop those spirits from going back to the world of the living by fighting them and sending them back to hell."

"And to do that, you just take them back there, right?" asked Maria.

"Even if we could, that would take far too long," replied the tactician. "Hell is split into eight circles, all of the circles punishing a different sin with some circles even punishing multiple sins. It would take forever to find the correct circle, even with a guide."

"So what do you do then?" asked Ike with a shrug.

"We warp them down there," said Jaffar. "And then we let other people take care of putting them back in their respective circle of hell."

"And how do you do that?" asked the living mercenary.

"We have people that use a special staff called 'binders' that handle the task of warping the spirits back to the underworld," replied Greil. "We subdue them, and then the binder warps them away."

"And who's this group's binder?" asked Ike.

"Agiezska," replied Jaffar.

"Oh, that explains why she was holding that staff..." said Maria softly.

"Exactly..." said Soren with a nod, almost as if he was able to hear the cat laguz.

"But wait a minute," said Ike. "Then if you guys are out here killing people, then where do the people without fighting abilities stay?"

"They stay with Hades, of course," replied Jaffar with a nod. "That's also where some people that are in training for doing this kind of work stay until they become masters at it."

"That would explain why my mother isn't here, then..." said Ike as he rubbed his chin.

"Yeah, she's with Hades," said Greil with a nod. "Good thing, too; he may be a little quick to anger, but he's a nice man."

"So I hear," said Maria with a nod. "I wonder..."

Maria didn't quite finish her sentence, for then a strange black bird flew up to the window, Jaffar standing up quickly and running over to it. He quickly lifted said window up, and the bird suddenly materialized into a black scroll.

"What just happened?" asked Maria as the assassin picked up the scroll and read through it quickly.

"It's a summons from Hades," said Jaffar.

"What's the matter?" asked Greil as he stood up.

"Something big has happened," said Jaffar as he quickly went to the captain. "One of the worst souls in one of the circles managed to get out into the world of the living."

"Oh, no..." said Greil, shaking his head as Soren, Ike, and Maria all stood up at the same time. "How'd he get across the river Styx in the first place?"

"Wait, what is going on?" asked a confused Maria.

"We're going to the palace of Hades," said Greil. "Help me round up everybody else, will you?"

"Of course," said Ike and Maria without a word.

All five individuals quickly split up, Ike and Maria walking up the stairs of the compound as the three dead men walked outside.

* * *

Fiordiligi and Agniezska were both in their room shortly after Jaffar had found them, the lady getting her staff from the bed as she watched Agniezska grab a sack from under her own bed. She figured rooming in the same place had its benifits, as they were both specialists in staff use.

"Fiordiligi!" cried the green-haired woman, snapping Fiordiligi out of her reverie. "Help me gather my staves!"

"Of course," said the lady, running over to the dresser where Agniezska kept her staves in.

As Agniezska pulled out a staff from under her bed, Fiordiligi opened the drawer to find a bunch of staves lying in there. Sighing, she picked all of the staves up quickly.

"You know, I wonder," said Fiordiligi as she stood up. "If you people are dead and can't possibly be any deader than you are, then why do you people keep so many blasted staves around here?"

"Binding purposes," said Agniezska plaintively as Fiordiligi dropped the staves into the sack that the woman had picked up from under her bed.

"Binding purposes?" asked Fiordiligi plaintively. "As in, stunning people?"

"Essentially, yes," replied Agniezska. "We require many staves to do many different things."

"You know, the whole 'binding' thing is making me curious," said the blonde lady as Agniezska hoisted the sack over her shoulders. "Ever since you told me about it while we were heading here, I've been wondering something..."

"What would that something be?" asked the grass-haired woman, casting a furtive glance to Fiordiligi.

"Can... can the living do the bindings as well?" askd Fiordiligi.

"Well, they can, but it's very difficult for them to learn it," said Agniezska. "Why? You wanted to try them?"

"Of course," replied Fiordiligi. "Or maybe even learn them. That too."

"But you do realize it is very difficult, yes?" asked Agniezska.

"Oh, damn it Agniezska, don't steer me away from my wants!" said Fiordiligi accusatorily. "Just because something was difficult never stopped me from doing things. How hard do you think it was to face down Ilemyr and make him pay for his crimes? I damn near fainted at what was happening around him, but I held myself together! Now, if you think a little difficulty is going to stop me, then--!"

"All right, all right," said Agniezska as the two of them headed down the stairs. "I'll see what I can do once we're within walking range of Hades."

"Thank you," said Fiordiligi, a tinge of bitterness flying off of her tongue.

The dead woman decided not to comment on it, as they were already falling behind schedule. The two of them ran outside of the compound to find that nobody else was around. However, that very quickly changed when the rest of the group crowded outside with them, Greil coming out last and looking to his team for confirmation.

After they all nodded, the mercenary leader gestured forward, and then the group was off to the royal palaces of Hades.


	6. Chapter 6: Briefing

All right, it's time to finally get this story moving somewhere! Now let's sit back and watch the story unfurl.

So in case you haven't noticed already, this is a combination of elements from the Greek and Norse underworlds, and Dante's _Inferno_. Now, since each circle of hell needs explaining, I'll tackle that as we go along. Also, expect tons of cameos from Fire Emblem characters

* * *

**_Greil's mercenary group was summoned to Hades' imperial grounds in the center of the underworld. On the prompt of acting quickly, Greil and company move out quickly with Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi all in tow._**

**_Thousands of questions race through their minds; however, two prominent questions stood out in the group's mind. How could the prisoner of hell have escaped with such efficiency that the mercenaries of the underworld could do nothing about it? What did Ike and his two companions have to do with it?_**

**_They finally make it to the royal grounds of the underworld, awaiting their answer..._**

Chapter 6: Briefing

"The master is ready, sir."

"All right. Lead the way."

And Ike followed Greil closely as the group was led into a large chamber.

The chamber was actually so large that the darkness in the royal grounds of the underworld caused there to seem to be no walls or ceilings in the room. However, before them there was a faint glow of two balls of light hovering above makeshift thrones of branches and leaves. The balls of light, one of which was a bright gold and the other a more subdued grey, were the only things that significantly lit the room up; the black flames that rested on the columns on either side of the room seemed to make things just a little darker and more obscure for the group to see, but it especially bothered Fiordiligi as she rubbed her eyes upon entering the hall.

As they approached, the balls of light flashed brilliantly, and then the two balls of light took on human forms. The golden ball of light transformed into a lady of untold beauty whose body gave off a golden light as she stood in front of the group, golden hair falling along her shoulders onto the short golden dress that adorned her. Next to her, the grey ball of light shifted into the form of a rather well-built man in strange armor, his muscles contrasting against his grey skin and the beard on his face telling tales of hardship and woe.

These two figures approached the group slowly, and when they were close enough, Greil bowed his head respectfully towards the grey man, the spirit replying in kind.

"Good day, sir Hades," began Greil.

"Cut the introduction," said the male spirit. "We don't need it when we're so short on time."

"My, so blunt!" said Fiordiligi quite suddenly. "Why are there no formalities, for crying out loud!"

"This is the underworld," replied the female spirit. "There are no need for formalities here."

"I'm guessing you're one of the people that's alive, then," said the male spirit. "There were supposed to be three."

"They're with us as well," added Lloyd quickly.

"As I've noticed," said the male spirit with a nod. "I'm sorry. How rude of me not to introduce myself. I'm Hades."

"And I am his wife, Persephone," added the female spirit with a nod.

"And you two rule the underworld," said Ike. "I get it. But I've still got something that's bothering me..."

"What is it?" asked Hades, quickly showing signs of being annoyed by Ike's sidetracking with a slight frown on his face.

"If this is the underworld, why isn't Yune or Sharotal or Latona or whatever other gods or goddesses there are out there here?" asked Ike.

"Oh, them?" asked Hades with a scoff. "They're not actually gods."

"What?" cried Maria, offended at how lightly Hades was taking this. "You mean we've been told lies all our lives?"

"To keep it simple, let us just say that those are not the true gods," intervened Persephone calmly, hoping to keep a conflict from coming into fruition judging from her slightly perturbed face. "The gods you worship are guardians of your continent; the true gods reside somewhere else. But this is not the time to be telling such tales, especially when time is short."

"Okay," said Linus with a shrug, noticing Persephone's plight. "Now that we've got that out of the way, what happened?"

"Well, the first thing that we noticed was these three over there," said Hades, pointing a finger at the three living people. "We were able to feel their presence before they came here."

"Which reminds me," added Fiordiligi quickly. "What the bloody hell was that that pulled us into this place?"

"That would be some arcane magics," said Hades. "Only a certain boatsman in hell can use it. I don't know why he did that, but if he did that must mean something big happened."

"Which is where that escapee comes in," elaborated Agniezska.

"Precisely," said Persephone with a nod. "I had heard from a trusted friend that a soul managed to escape the underworld to enter the land of the living."

"Oh, no..." said Andrew. "That can't be good..."

"Considering none of us can go back there to send him back to hell, I would say that as well..." said Hades.

"Fear not, my liege," said Agniezska. "Fiordiligi here has offered to learn the binding arts."

"What?" cried the king of the underworld, glaring at the blonde as she backed away instinctively at his yelling. "But what is this, a living woman learning arts of the dead!"

"I can assure you that your worries are baseless!" replied Fiordiligi with fervor as she gained her composure after Hades had yelled at her.

"But it will take you forever to learn!" bemoaned Hades, pacing around and gesturing widely. "At this rate, we'll never have this guy back in the underworld!"

"You underestimate my worth, good sir!" replied Fiordiligi assertively. "I've been in a battle where Sharotal entrusted her holy staff to me! If I can master that I can certainly master some binding arts!"

"Besides, she's making headway!" pointed out Agniezska.

"Oh, all right, fine," replied Hades with a wave of his hand. "Do what you want."

"Meanwhile, we are getting massively sidetracked," said Soren. "You told us a long time ago you knew how to get out of the underworld if you were a mortal..."

"There is?" asked Maria, eyes lighting up quickly. "How?"

"Through the bottom of hell is a hole," replied Hades with a nod. "If you go through that hole, you'll be taken to a random continent. It doesn't really matter where you wind up, just that you're back in the realm of the living."

"So we have to climb down and we'll be back home?" asked Ike.

"It's not as easy as it sounds," replied Hades. "Especially now with that runaway, everybody's probably going crazy down there."

"Should we accompany them, then?" asked Jaffar cooly.

"That would be a rather good idea," said Persephone.

"Yeah, besides, you'd need a guide through some parts of hell," said Hades with a shrug. "Sure."

"Is there anything else you'd like to address?" asked Hades.

"What was that you said about guardians?" asked Ike, hoping to bring the subject back up.

"You still want to know about that?" asked a slightly peeved Hades. "Time is short, you know. We don't have time for this!"

"Fine, fine, forget it," said an annoyed Ike.

"No, really, we want to hear it!" demanded Fiordiligi. "And you will tell us now, or so help me Sharotal I will--!"

"All right, fine!" burst Hades angrily. "I'll tell!"

"Hades, calm down!" pleaded Persephone quickly. "This is nothing to get worked over. Now take a deep breath."

The king of the underworld did as he was told to do.

"Now, will you kindly tell us what you meant?" asked Fiordiligi again.

"Of course," said Hades with a nervous nod. "In the beginning, there was nothing, but as time went by stuff was created."

"Sounds pretty standard to me," said Ike. "What then?"

"Well, the gods were created first," continued Hades. "And then, the earth and the sky and the stars were created as well."

"So that happened," said Fiordiligi. "So what happened after the world was created?"

"Well, we created humans first, you see," said Hades with a wink. "But these people kept on fighting with each other because some evil force was posessing them to do so and we were powerless to stop them. It was so bad that they destroyed themselves time and time again, and there was nothing we could do to stop it. From there, we knew our mistake; so after the human race eradicated itself, we created many more races of men to inhabit this earth, along with a set of five guardians to ward off the influence of this evil force."

"So it was Sharotal, Ashunera, Latona, and two other people we don't know about," said Maria. "Am I right?"

"Sharotal was not Greljedo's original guardian, though," said Hades. "The true guardian was Ilemyr."

"What?" cried Fiordiligi. "That demon that destroyed the continent was supposed to be its guardian?"

"Somewhere along the line, there was a great surge of evil from within," said Persephone with her head hanging down slightly. "And from this surge of evil came a many great phenomena; The Scouring, the split of the Zunanma into Beorc and Laguz, the sudden change of heart within Ilemyr, the start of the Thousand Years' War, and the wakening of the Demon King. All of this came to a head in the Great Flood, caused by Ashunera, the youngest and least experienced of the guardians."

"So then things mended themselves on their own," said Ike. "What could've caused all that?"

"We know not," replied the king of the underworld. "That knowledge is reserved for the gods on the mount. And since I'm down here..."

"Well that's pretty stupid," said Maria, frowning a little at this development. "I'd think you'd need to know that information!"

"They don't see it like that," said Hades with a slight frown on his features.

"Just because he took me to be his wife..." said Persephone with a slight shake of her head. "But if you aim for the Mount of the Gods on the continent of Delmerg, then you can find out this informtion yourself."

"Delmerg?" asked Fiordiligi. "We'll keep that in mind."

"In the meantime, anything else you might want to ask us?" asked Hades.

"Where's the entrance to this 'hell' place?" asked Maria.

"Oh, that?" asked Hades with a scoff. "Greil knows where it is. Are there any other _real _questions that we can take?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no..." replied Greil.

"Then you are all dismissed," said Hades with a nod. "Head to the edge of the underworld. I'll meet you there."

Greil nodded, and then he led the way, his underlings following him as Ike followed his father.

* * *

As they were exiting the palace and entering the underworld proper once again, Maria could have sworn she felt a familiar presence in the area.

"Maria? Ike? Fiordiligi?" asked a male voice from behind them.

The three people mentioned turned their heads quickly, Greil's troupe stopping as they beheld a young man that the three living people recognized all too much.

"My goodnes..." said Fiordiligi, staring in shock at the sight before her.

"Ephraim?" asked Maria.

The king of Renais indeed stood in front of them; however, there was no head on his neck. Instead, his head being cradled in one of his arms, and the smile on his lips seemed to be creepier the more he looked at them. Nervously, Andrew stepped forward to look at the man.

"P-prince Ephraim?" asked the young man nervously. "What're you doing here?"

"My wife beheaded me, that's what!" said the king angrily. "And now I have to hold my head for all eternity. Can you imagine something so unbelievably inconvenient?"

"I'll say..." said Ike as he looked down at the king, the rest of the mercenary troupe surrounding him. "You know your wife was posessed, right?"

"Yeah, but she's still in hell," said Ephraim with a shrug.

Fiordiligi gave Ephraim a curious look, her brows furrowing as she assumed this look.

"Why?" asked the lady quietly.

"Suicides apparently count as 'we're sending you to hell' material," said Ephraim. "What're you guys doing here?"

"We're still alive, but we got sucked here against our own will," said Maria. "And we've been separated from Willie and Kuranga!"

"Wait, Kuranga rejoined you guys?" asked Ephraim incredulously. "But I thought he tried to kill your--!"

"That doesn't concern us now," said Fiordiligi, laughing nervously as she brushed a strand of blonde hair away from her face. "And you're still learning the ropes here?"

"I'll have to join a mercenary company soon," said the king. "Although, what with holding my head in my arms I'm not sure I'll be too useful."

"Oh, nonsense!" replied Fiordiligi with a wave of her hand. "I'm sure we could all use the skills that you obtained in your life."

"That's nice to know..." said Ephraim, gazing down at the floor as he pulled his head so that it was farther from falling out of his grasp than it was before.

"Well, it is true, so keep that in mind," said Ike. "Anyways, we've gotta get going here; we're still alive and we need to get out of here."

"That's fine, then," said Ephraim with a wink of his eyes. "Tell L'arachel I say hi."

"Sure thing," said Fiordiligi, the lady bowing respectfully as the two of them parted ways and the mercenary corps went on their way.

As soon as the group was far enough from the royal grounds of the underworld, Andrew sent a confused glance at Maria, eyes glossing over in the confusion.

"L'arachel?" asked Andrew. "As in, the princess of Rausten?"

"Yep," nodded Maria quickly.

"My liege married that woman?" asked Andrew. "I don't believe you!"

"As usual, we'll probably prove you wrong," said Gregor as they walked along.

"But it doesn't make sense!" cried Andrew desperately. "L'arachel was the most shielded princess in the world; hell, I didn't know she existed until I entered the knighthood!"

"Well, Andrew, let me put it this way," said Fiordiligi with a shake of her head. "Since you had died, L'arachel had turned into a prideful hussy who thought all of her actions were just and righteous."

"I'm confused..." said Andrew, holding his chin as he thought about it. "That's not what she was like at all."

"Well, then, she obviously must have changed then!" said Linus, pinching the muscle tissue of Andrew's shoulder and eliciting a hiss of pain from the deceased youth.

"Okay, okay, fine," said Andrew, trying his best to resist the tempation to rub the spot where he had been pinched and failing slightly as his hand came to rest on the spot that Linus had pinched.

And the group continued on in relative silence, Ike following Greil as they walked on in the mist.

* * *

Eventually, they saw a strange blueish glow emanate from somewhere within the mist, Greil smirking as they approached.

"Ah, here we are!" he said. "The gate to hell."

The group walked forwards to find a large blue portal that let off a slightly subdued glow in the mist. Ike looked around it to find a magic circle embedded in it.

"So the gate to hell is a magic circle?" asked Ike. "How could anybody escape this?"

"People have their ways, Ike," replied Jaffar just a little coldly.

"And since we're here, we can enter, right?" asked Lloyd.

"I think so," said Soren. "Hades did not say anything about seeing us off."

"And that's why you need to not assume things, Soren," came the voice of Hades from nowhere.

Without much more preparation, Hades and Persephone both appeared to the group as the hovering balls of light that they were initially seen as.

"W-wait!" said Agniezska. "What are you two doing here?"

"Following you, of course," said Persephone plainly. "If we want to know what is going on here, then we shall come too."

"But what about the grounds?" asked Lloyd quickly. "What're you going to do about them?"

"Don't worry about it," said Hades as the ball glowed a little harsher. "We left Mercury in charge."

"That troublemaker?" asked Greil with a frown on his face.

"We trust his judgement," replied Persephone. "Besides, he is not really a goofball the way you all think he is."

"Uh, who?" asked Ike with a confused look.

"You'll meet him some day," replied Hades. "Now, we have things we need to invesigate. Let us get going, shall we?"

"Of course!" said Greil. "Is everybody ready?"

"Yes, sir!" said Andrew with a nod, everybody else following suit.

"Then let's go." said Hades as he hovered to the center of the gate.

Quite slowly, the group entered the blue circle, and then Ike felt a rush of wind surround him and take him through a strange place full of colors. He looked around, hoping to see signs of the people he knew and was quite relieved to find everybody else looking around in much the same manner he was. They were stuck in this tunnel of colors for quite some time, the minutes seeming to be very short as the colors rapidly alternated so that a different color was predominant in every case.

And when the tunnel had dissapeared, the first thing Ike felt was the strongest wind he had ever felt in his life.


	7. Chapter 7: The First Circle

Okay, now that we're moving somewhere in this story, it's time to see what hell is all about! Be prepared!

* * *

Chapter 7: The First Circle

"Whoa!" cried Ike, almost tipping over before Greil took his wrist and steadied his son.

"Don't stand straight here," said Greil as he pointed out the strong gusts here. "You'll probably get blown away here if you do."

"Wait, where am I?" asked Ike as he found the rest of the group bracing themselves against the strong winds.

"You, sir, are on the first circle of hell," said Hades.

Ike looked around him to find a grayish sky not unlike the one he had encountered in the underworld. However, Ike beheld two strange sights around him; the first was that in the place he was there were a bunch of bodies that were seen flying about, being tossed around as if they were made of rags. Undoubtedly they were from the incredibly strong winds that were whipping around the place, but Ike was still bewildered at the sheer amount of people flying around.

"What the hell is this?" asked Maria as she found herself grabbing Linus' hand for support.

"Hades!" cried Lyanna suddenly as she got on all fours and gripped the grass.

"This is where the lustful are punished," replied Persephone at her loudest so she could be heard above the windstorm that was surrounding them. "They're blown about by winds!"

"I can see that!" cried Fiordiligi as she was held to the ground by Lloyd, Gegor, Andrew, and Agniezska. "What is this all about?"

"You can see it, can't you?" cried Lyanna, hair whipping against her face as she slowly struggled to stand back up.

"Of course I can!" cried Fiordiligi. "I'm not blind!"

"Then shut up about it!" cried the branded lady as she stood up and grabbed on to Ike's shoulder.

"How do we get to the end of this?" asked Gregor loudly.

"Simple!" cried Hades with a scoff as the balls that were he and Persephone hovered in the air like the windstorm around them was not happening. "Follow me!"

"I wish it was that simple," muttered Agniezska into the wind as the two balls of light led the group in a particular direction, the mercenaries trying to fight their way through the wind with the sheer force of their footsteps.

After a while of walking, Linus looked up into the storm, and suddenly recognizing a figure just as it was about to be blown past them. Before anyone could react to the shock on his face, the burly man reached out and grabbed a rather old person by the ankle, everybody looking at this act and who the man had recognized. Ike had moved to ask this question when Lloyd did so on his own.

"Father?" asked Lloyd as he gazed upon the naked man that was being blown about by winds.

"Lloyd?" asked the old man as Linus held fast to him. "Linus? Is that you?"

"What the hell?" asked Ike loudly. "They wind up in the underworld, yet the father ends up in hell? What is this?"

"I was punished for lust!" cried the old man.

"I told you that Sonia was no good!" cried Lloyd. "Not only is the Fang dead, but you're being blown around for all eternity!"

"The Fang... died?" asked the old man.

"It's been dead for a while, old man!" cried Andrew irritably.

"No..." said the old man. "And I thought she loved me..."

"Wait, who the hell is this guy?" cried Fiordiligi, eliciting stares at her.

"I would be more... careful about who you talk about..." said Agniezska, shrugging a little.

"What?" asked a slightly offended Fiordiligi. "I have no idea who this man is, and I get denied that knowledge?"

"He'd tell you if you'd not run your mouth!" yelled Gregor. This yell effectively silenced Fiordiligi, who then looked nervously at everybody.

"Thank you, sir. I am Brendan Reed," said the old man as Lyanna joined Linus in helping keep the old man rooted to the ground. "I was the head of the Black Fang in my lifetime."

"So why'd you end up here?" asked Maria. "I thought the Fang was killing off villains!"

"Because he fell for some hot lady who was so much younger than him!" cried Linus. "She wasn't even human, it turns out!"

"Not even human?" asked Maria. "Was she a laguz?"

"Not even that!" exclaimed Agniezska with a scoff. "He got seduced by a morph."

"What's a morph?" asked the cat laguz, now even more confused as she scratched an area behind her ears.

"They're these things you make out of life force..." said Linus. "They are completely emotionless, and they are the perfect machines for combat."

"Ugh..." said Fiordiligi, giving a grossed out expression at this. "I certainly woudn't want to be one of them."

"Neither would I, Fiordiligi," said Agniezska with a nod. "Neither would I."

"So the lady that seduced you was one of these... things," said Ike, still trying to wrap his mind fully around something being totally emotionless.

"Yes, she was," said Brendan. "And before I knew it, she began branding certain lords as being evil! She used me for her own purposes!"

"And on top of that, she was serving someone else!" cried Lloyd angrily.

"Someone else?" asked Ike loudly. "Who?"

"Nergal..." hissed the man so softly that it was barely audible in the wind.

It was at this point that Linus and Lyanna both lost their grip on Brendan Reed, and before anything else could be said the old man was sent hurtling into the world, the group looking on astonished as Brendan somehow kept himself together. Before much else could be said, Ike rubbed his eyes with one hand as he shook his head.

"Nergal?" asked Ike. "Who was that?"

"A greedy person," said Hades as he hovered in front of the group. "I have the awful feeling that that's who escaped this place..."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Fiordiligi.

"I don't have time to answer your question!" cried the king of the underworld loudly. "We've gotta run down to the circle of hell we need to know what's going on here, damn it!"

"But can't we at least say hi to the people we know?" asked Andrew with a shrug. "Because, you know, we could always do that!"

"Fine!" cried out Hades. "Do what you want! But you better keep up with me!"

And with this, Hades flew rapidly away, the gray sphere flying away ever so quickly as the winds finally seemed to be jostling him about.

"Darling, wait!" cried Persephone as the golden orb chased the gray orb.

"Oh, great, there he goes again," said Greil with a shake of his head. "Let's get going, everyone."

Before Ike had an opportunity to say anything else, the rest of the group began to move in the direction Hades had stormed off to very quickly, and Ike was effectively silenced as he found himself trying to remain steady in the wind.

* * *

After a while of walking and dodging the very occasional spirit that was sent whirling around a little too close to the ground, the ground seemed to end at one point, and then the dull gray orb that was Hades lit up for a bit.

"All right, we're here," said the king of the underworld.

"All right, good," said Lyanna sourly. She was quite bitter from having been nicked in the head by the heel of a spirit that had been flying too close to the ground, and even though it did not hurt it was still quite annoying when the culprit was blown away before she could curse him off. "Now what the hell is over here?"

The group slowly edged over to where the ground seemed to end, and ever so carefully they laid down on the ground and crawled to the edge, looking down to see a cliff face that slanted down into a black expanse. Ike gave a sour look at this before he looked back to Hades.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked the mercenary.

"Oh, the black stuff?" asked Hades. "I wouldn't worry about that."

"What is it there for, then?" asked Fiordiligi as she looked down into it.

"It is meant to keep the circles of hell from seeing each other's punishments," replied Persephony. "If I remember correctly, there should be a staircase that appears somewhere on this circle.?"

"Oh, great, more searching?" cried an annoyed Andrew, gesturing into the air as he spoke. "I can't believe this!"

"Damn it, Andrew, calm down!" retorted Gregor with an equally annoyed tone of foice. "It's not that bad!"

"But we've been walking, bored for quite some time!" exclaimed a now slightly enraged Andrew. "Now we still gotta wait for the good stuff to happen?"

Lloyd made a move to comment on this when in the corner of his eyes he saw a small platform slowly bleed out of the earth. As soon as the man noticed this, he stretched out his arm to the platform.

"Look at that!" said the thin man, everybody's attention being drawn to the rock as it slowly protruded from the cliff face.

This rock then slowly proliferated into a grand staircase, the rest of the group standing up and looking at the staircase make itself one step at a time. Eventually, the staircase began to create itself so that it spiralled into the inky blackness below them, and as the group slowly stood up the staircase almost seemed to stop forming as it stepped into the darkness.

The group found themselves staring at the sight in silence, the howling of the wind behind them the only sound to be heard. Finally, Fiordiligi shook her head quite annoyedly, planting her staff into the ground and seeming to lean against it.

"Well, with staircases like this it's no wonder that spirit escaped," she said dryly, glancing at Hades.

"Now that you put it like that..." said Agniezska as she too stared into the vast expanse beneath her.

"But they're not supposed to work from the bottom," said Hades in denial. "They only go down."

"Well, then if that's the case we'll have to test that on later floors," challenged Maria. "At any rate, we can get down safely. Let's go, everyone!"

Maria was the first one down the staircase, with Ike following closely behind as he grabbed her hand. Blushing, she took it, and the group slowly filed onto the staircase, Hades and Persephone darting to the front to provide a light as they descended down the staircase. Fiordiligi and Agniezska were the last ones on the staircase, and when she was sure Hades could not hear her Fiordiligi tapped the dead woman's shoulder.

"What is it?" asked Agniezska, grass-colored hair whirling around with her as she took a quick glance at the woman behind her.

"I don't know about you, but I get the feeling Hades is hiding something from me, Ike, and Maria," she said softly. "I know I shouldn't be afraid, but I just can't shake that feeling off..."

"Hades is a good man," said Agniezska with a nod. "He hardly ever hides things. If he hides something, then Persephone knows about it as well."

"That isn't very comforting, you know," said Fiordiligi. "That sounds to me like he's selective on who he tells things too..."

"I'm saying that if he is hiding something, then it won't take as much effort to force it out of him as you think," said Agniezska as the group submerged into the blackness beneath. "Don't worry about it; it'll be all right."

"I hope you're right..." said the young woman as she then felt Agniezska tap Fiordiligi's hand.

Taking the hint, Fiordiligi grabbed Agniezska's hand, using that as a general guide throughout the rest of their journey in the pitch darkness that she could barely see through.


	8. Chapter 8: The Second Circle

All right. So now is where I have to start explaining things. So let's go!

This first circle of hell is where the lustful are punished, to be blown around by a strong windstorm for all eternity. In Dante's Inferno, this is supposed to represent how lustful people are blown about needlessly, but I'm sure you grasped that in one reading

Now, there' a slight disconnect between this and the Inferno proper; in the Inferno, this is actually the second circle of hell as opposed to the first circle of hell. Why? The proper first circle of hell was Limbo, but seeing as Christianity is nonexistant in this universe there's no need to put the virtuous pagans anywhere, now, is there? So the Underworld is Limbo now. There's going to be another change later, but we'll get to that when we get there. For now, let's continue with the epic. :D

* * *

Chapter 8: The Second Circle

When Ike and Maria set foot at the bottom of the staircase, they found their feet sinking into something that felt very, very disgusting.

"Ew!" cried Maria, her leg retreating back onto the step. "What is that stuff?"

"Black snow, freezing rain, and hail," said Hades, the ball of grey light hovering above one of the most disgusting substances Ike had ever seen. "Welcome to the second circle of hell."

"What the hell is this?" asked Fiordiligi, giving a rather disgusted look at the slush beneath where she was on the staircase.

"Careful with your word choice," said Agniezska.

"This is the circle where the gluttons are punished," said Persephone, the golden orb glowing radiantly in the near darkness. "They are forced to lie in this slush."

"For all eternity?" asked Fiordiligi, disgusted beyond words. "Gross!"

"You're telling me this?" asked Andrew as he jumped onto Linus' back. "You try telling that to the guy who's got a burn all over his body, why don't you?"

"Andrew, calm down," said Gregor as he flapped his wings and found himself in the sky. "I know what you mean, but still..."

"Euch..." said Lyanna as she stepped into the slush. "I sure hope that staircase holds..."

As soon as Lyanna said that, however, the staircase they had descended from suddenly dissapeared. When this happened, Fiordiligi and Agniezska, who were still on the staircase, fell into the slush beneath them, a strange kind of dull splash resulting from this.

"Oh my god!" cried Linus, turning to face the direction that the girls had landed in. "Agniezska? Fiordiligi?"

The Greljedan woman jumped out of the slush first, her blonde hair wet and marred by water as she sent a death glare at Hades.

"What?" asked the king of the underworld.

"You better not be hiding anything else," said Fiordiligi, her voice nearly cracking in her anger as she tried to remove the grime all over her person with her hands. "Or rest assured, you are going to be hit so hard you will wish you were never born!"

Hades chose not to reply, instead watching Agniezska surface from the slush.

"Gross!" said the Elibeian woman, shaking her head to get the grime out of her green hair. "I can't believe this is actually a punishment!"

"It could be worse," said Greil with a shrug. "Anyways, we better be careful here."

"Why?" asked Ike with a shrug.

"We don't know when the gluttons will attack," replied Soren. "They're lying under this, and if we step on one of them..."

Nothing else needed to be said, and the group advanced into this new circle of hell, Fiordiligi and Agniezska sputtering as they tried to get the vile slush that had gathered on their bodies off of their persons.

However, they had barely walked two steps when out of the slush a hand came darting out of the slush so quickly that Greil, who had looked back, was not able to shout a warning before the hand grabbed a hold of Maria's ankle. As she felt the cold hand touch her, she let out a scream of fright, Ike turning quickly and kicking the hand away. However, he found the hand grabbing on to his own ankle like a vice, and by this point Agniezska was running over to the mercenary, or moving as fast as she could with the slush slowing her down. Ike had tried to slap the hand away with Ragnell, but that did not seem to work either. This seemed to do the trick, as suddenly the hand retreated into the slush. The group crowded around Maria as she was on the verge of hyperventilating, Ike's arm on her shoulders to steady her.

"Are you okay?" asked Ike.

"My god..." said Maria. "That was really, really scary..."

"I wouldn't be surprised," shrugged Lyanna. "To think that there's people that are actually under this stuff..."

"It's pretty crazy," said Greil. "Anyways, let's get moving here."

The group nodded, and they slowly waded through the slush that was all over the second circle of hell.

* * *

The group was still walking in the second circle of hell. Agniezska and Fiordiligi were alone to the side while Agniezska was lecturing Fiordiligi on certain things about binding a spirit, Greil, Soren, and Jaffar were walking behind Hades and Persephone almost mindlessly, and Maria was engaged in a conversation with Lyanna, Lloyd and Linus. Ike tagged along with Gregor and Andrew who were towards the back of the group. Ike, Gregor, and Andrew had been walking fairly silently, Andrew always seeming to want to speak but never really bringing up the courage to talk much. Finally, though, he had enough, and to take his mind off of the sting that came with walking in this ice-cold slush, Andrew turned to Ike.

"So, Ike," said the knight, his eyes gazing at the mercenary. "I wonder; what did get you out of Tellius?"

"Andrew?" asked Ike.

"Actually, I agree with that insight for once," said Gregor with a shrug. "I mean, you were head of a mercenary company, the hero of a continent, had a wonderful sister, and all that other good stuff. Why would you leave all that?"

"I'm not entirely sure," said Ike with a shrug.

"Hm..." said Gregor. "You're hiding something."

"What are you talking about?" asked the hero of Tellius with a shrug.

"Well, if what Gregor says is right, then...?" asked Andrew, suddenly finding himself stuck on words to use.

"Ugh," sighed the hawk. "Look. I can smell it about you; something else is at play here!"

"What do you mean?" asked Ike. "You're saying that you can read minds here?"

"W-wha?" cried Andrew. "That's not what he meant at all! Right, Gregor?"

"Yeah!" replied the now slightly flustered laguz. "I-I was just saying that there were... You know... Other ways I could see you're lying!"

"Hm," said Ike with a nod. "I see. But that still doesn't convince me."

"What?" asked the burned youth, suddenly quite angry and offended. "You think that just because we're dead means that our senses are dulled?"

"Andrew, calm down," said Gregor, patting his arms softly. "I didn't think that's what he meant."

"It was, actually," said Ike, stepping back in surprise as Andrew and Gregor both shot glares at the mercenary. "But I see your point."

"So, are you going to tell us?" asked Andrew finally.

"No," deadpanned Ike.

Before Andrew or Gregor could say anything more, Ike had gone on ahead to the group that Maria was conversing in, leaving the hawk and the youth slightly confused as to the gestures they had just seen.

"Well, it was your idea," said Andrew, raising his arms in the air as he resumed moving.

"B-but you said it was a good idea to follow up on it!" retorted Gregor, now gloriously angry at the young man.

"Well, you were the one who had the hyperactive senses in the first place!" cried Andrew back, moving to hit the hawk across the shoulder.

"Well, if it hadn't been for you wanting to find out yourself, I--!"

"Enough!" cried Lyanna from in front of them, turning around with her hot pink eyes glaring wildly at the two of them such that they both stopped moving, petrified to the spot they were standing in. "You two can either behave or we'll put you with the rest of these nimwits! Quiet down!"

Lyanna proceeded forward, the rest of her group also startled by her outburst. Andrew and Gregor gave a quick glance at each other as the rest of the group slowly moved along. Finally, Andrew gingerly walked forward, Gregor following behind and whistling a rather short tune to himself as they slowly caught up with the rest of the group.

* * *

Finally, after what seemed like hours of trekking in the vile slush, they came to a portion where the slush seemed to end in a slight downwards slope. With a sigh, Fiordiligi quickly walked out of the slush and onto the solid ground nearby.

"Finally, we've escaped that slush!" wailed Fiordiligi as the rest of the group followed her lead.

"Now I know how Willie felt when he came along with us!" said Maria as she stepped out. "And to think he had to deal with this for his entire life!"

At the mention of Willie's name, Fiordiligi looked down at the ground, eyes cast down as she wondered.

"Oh, dear, I hit a nerve, didn't I?" asked the cat laguz, suddenly quite surprised at the reaction Fiordiligi gave her.

"I miss him, that's all," said Fiordiligi with a shrug, looking back up with eyes that betrayed a strange kind of sadness.

"Really?" asked Gregor. "I see something else there..."

"W-what?" asked the woman as a blush came to her cheeks.

"Hey, she's blushing!" cried Andrew. "Fiordiligi's in love! Fiordiligi's in love!"

This teasing sing-song was met with a rather violent blow to Andrew's head from Lyanna, who just happened to be walking by.

"Will you quit it?" asked the branded female almost immediately after Andrew let out a cry of pain. "I've put up with enough of your bullshit as it is; one more thing and I'm backtracking all the way here and sticking you in this slush, got it?"

"Uh... yes, ma'am..." said a now somewhat submissive Andrew as a short distance away Lloyd and Linus both shook their heads with a groan.

"Anyways," said Greil. "We are at the staircase, right?"

"We don't need a staircase for going to the next circle of hell," said Hades. "Rather, the cliff face is oblique enough that we can walk down it without considerable difficulty."

"Oh, all right," said Ike.

"Hm..." said Agniezska, eyes narrowing just a little bit. "Somehow that doesn't make me more comfortable."

"It's better than waiting for a staircase to come out of nowhere, right?" asked Hades.

"And it certainly makes for easier escapes!" said Fiordiligi loudly. "What is it with this place? I've only been to two circles of this place and already I find things wrong with it! It's no wonder you have such problems keeping people from escaping!"

"Hey!" cried Hades, transforming into his human form with a great frown on his face. "Watch your tongue, woman! It's not my fault this place was built the way it was! Those bastards just gave it to me, and--!"

"Hades, my dear, be calm!" cried Persephone, shifting to her human phase as well and putting her hands on the king's shoulders. "We have a long ways to go, and I do not think that getting angry is good for your health..."

Hades angrily exhaled and inhaled, the Greljedan lady quite frightened by this outbust. Finally, after a few tense minutes of everybody staring at Hades, he transformed back into his light form, Persephone's hands remaining in the air.

"Fine," said the god. "But if you say anything more about this freaking place, then I'm placing her straight in the ninth circle of hell!"

The ball of light advanced forward towards a steep cliff face that, despite the angle that was visible, was seen to be quite easy to walk on. The rest of the group stared at the king go, Persephone morphing back into a ball of light and following him.

"All that over a little sissy fit?" asked Andrew. "Damn. Someone's acting like a kid here."

"Andrew!" cried Lyanna. She moved in to hit Andrew again, but this time Lloyd was able to catch her wrist with his hand.

"Actually, Andrew does have a point," said Lloyd with a shrug.

"W-wha?" asked Lyanna. "Lloyd! You're supposed to be siding with--!"

"Calm down, Lyanna," said Linus as he patted her shoulder. "Lloyd's right."

"I would say the same thing," said Ike. "I have never seen a fully grown man do something like that. Anyways, we should probably go now."

"Indeed," said Greil, following the two orbs of light as they advanced into the next area. "Let's go."

The group slowly followed behind, finding a foothold on the slope below them and traversing down it rather quickly into the next circle of hell.


	9. Chapter 9: Attempted Escape

Okay, so now more things that need to be explained. But not really, because it was pretty comprehensible to me.

Anyways, you know the drill; here's the chapter, and I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Chapter 9: Attempted Escape

The group had walked down the hill rather slowly, and suddenly they found themselves walking in a stretch of land that was full of hills as far as the eye could see. The group could also see the most enormous bags of items they had ever seen being rolled up and down the various hills, and from the tops of these bags they managed to see a few gold coins spill out. This was the only color in the otherwise grey landscape, and this caused some people to look at the dark sky with curious faces.

"Money bags?" asked Fiordiligi. "What are they for?"

"The damned push those money bags around if they were greedy or prodigal," said Persephone softly.

"What's the difference?" asked Maria. "It seems like they're all doing the same thing to me."

"Well, see, the ones that roll the money bags up the hill are the avaricious souls," replied Persephone. "The ones that roll it down the hills are the prodigal souls."

"Ah, so they're doing the opposite of what they did in life?" asked Fiordiligi with a twinkle in her eyes. "Very interesting for sure..."

"Indeed," said Ike as he noticed the rest of the group moving along. "I wonder what else we'll find here..."

Since the dead people had nothing to add to this, Ike and his two friends walked on, Persephone trailing behind as a ball of golden light, the group moving on in the relative darkness of the circle of hell as the sound of coins being shuffled around seemed to permeate the air.

However, quite suddenly, almost as if out of the blue, there was a rushing of air around them. Agniezska, noticing this, held her staff up and managed to cause a runaway spirit to materialize in front of the group's eyes. Before the spirit even knew what had happened, everybody readied their weapons at the stranger with angry eyes.

"W-wha?" asked the spirit, realizing that he had materialized to the rest of the group. "H-how--?"

Hades and Persephone both shifted into their human forms, the king of the underworld shaking his head.

"You know, you've got some real balls escaping the underworld when the king of the underworld is doing a tour of it," said Hades.

"What?" cried the now startled man, wrinkles prominent in the darkness as Ike noticed the short beige hair that came down his face. "B-but-!

"You will know your place!" said Fiordiligi, readying her staff. "Everybody, after him!"

And without much more of a warning, Ike charged at the stranger, slamming Ragnell on the ground just as the man jumped to the side.

"You wouldn't dare to hit me, the great Advisor Roartz?" asked the stranger.

Hades shook his head as he jumped at the man whose name was apparently Roartz. "I don't know; great and coward don't equate."

Before Roartz could reply, Maria had grabbed the man roughly, twirling around and throwing him to Andrew, who proceeded to kick the man in the face. This sent him reeling back, where Lyanna then drew a bow and quickly fired an arrow into Roartz' side.

Fiordiligi, who had been chanting the entire time, suddenly raised her staff high, and before the advisor could figure out what had happened, a magic circle surrounded him, and he doubled over in pain. The woman from Jericho was not very pleased with this, however, and she held her staff higher in the air, only for the man to scream out in pain.

"Damn it!" cried Fiordiligi. "I can't get the sending spell to work!"

"Because he's not weak enough!" said Agniezska, preparing her own staff. "Besides, that spell takes lots of time to master. I'll take over from here."

Fiordiligi nodded, and then Agniezska held her own ornate staff up high. The same exact magic circle had only dimmed for a second after Agniezska took over the spell for Fiordiligi, and this time the circle leapt off of the ground, enclosing Roartz much like a fly trap, and as soon as he dissapeared from sight, the group stared at the space where he used to be.

"Well," said Soren. "I must say I'm rather impressed with that; most people that begin the art of soul binding can barely even start the spell at this. You are truly gifted, Fiordiligi."

Fiordiligi shook her head. "You know just as well as I do that I don't really deserve that flattery."

"I wouldn't know," replied Hades with a shrug. "You're the first person from the realm of the living that can actually start that binding spell. If you manage to master it by the time we get down to the bottom of hell, you'll definitely be given an honorary spot in my court."

"Really?" asked the Greljedan woman. "I'm not sure I follow."

"Ah, the honorary positions!" said Lloyd with a slight smile. "Where all of the greatly virtuous souls are. Although, I'm not entirely sure how being able to bond spirits while still alive counts as going there..."

Hades gave a slight smirk to indicate he knew more about the subject than he cared to expound on. "You'll see in due time, my friend."

"Who was that guy anyway?" asked Maria.

"He was Roartz," said Persephone. "A very cowardly land, in service to the nation of Etruria on Elibe."

"Cowardly?" asked Ike, looking to the queen of the underworld perplexedly. "What did he do?"

"Side with the wrong people, of course," said Persephone. "He also led a rebellion in his own nation, and when that fell apart he fled!"

Fiordiligi's face wrinkled in a strange kind of confusion. "Eh. Coward indeed," said Gregor before the lady could voice her thoughts.

"Please do tell me we won't be seeing most of those kinds around here again!" exclaimed Fiordiligi.

"Oh, trust me when I tell you that you will often be seeng much, much worse people around these parts," replied Greil.

Maria was rather silent at first, but she nodded softly. "I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does..." she said shyly.

"Whatever the case, I'll be here," said Ike. "So, are we going to get moving sometime, or...?"

"Yes," said Hades as he and Persephone shifted into their ball forms once again. "This way, please."

The group followed the two balls of light much more closely and attentively now, all of them wondering what would happen next as they watched the damned roll their money bags up and down their respective hills.

* * *

As the group travelled down the hills, they finally came down to a river bank. The river bank was shrouded in darkness, but for a strange mist that pervaded the waters of the body of water. Even without the fog, however, the other side of the riverbank was not to be seen, and Ike noted this with his gaze.

"So, where are we?" asked the mercenary.

"You, sir, are at the banks of the river of Tuonela," said Hades. "This is the river that counts as the fourth circle of hell."

"Oh, so not all the circles are divided by level?" asked Fiordiligi. "That's strange..."

"So does this mean we get to see that swan that everybody talks about?" asked Andrew, his eyes seeming to gleam as he let off a smile that came off more creepily than he intended it to come out.

Lloyd glanced at the river somewhat nervously before replying. "Uh, yes," said the swordsman.

"But no doubt Phlegyas is here, right?" asked Greil.

"Of course!" said Persephone.

Maria seemed a little confused by this conversation. "Wait, we have to ride a swan to get to the other side of this place?"

"Might be a little dangerous, too," said Agniezska. "This is the circle of the wrathful and the slothful. The wrathful are a problem as they fight on the surface for all eternity."

"So we just need to watch out for them," said Ike, shouldering Ragnell as he said this. "Sounds like a plan."

And then, from deep within the fog a shadow was visible. It sailed slowly towards the group, Gregor being the first person to notice its appearance. As the shadow edged closer, the shape of an abnormally large swan with a man on a boat that it was tugging behind it. Noticing this, Ike pointed at the form in the distance.

"Is that the boat?" asked the mercenary, finger pointing into the mist where the shape was visible.

"That would be Phlegyas, yes," said Hades.

And after a few more seconds of waiting the swan was finally completely visible in the mist, its white plumage shining in the darkness almost like moonlight was glinting off of it. The figure of Phlegyas, a rather tall, lean man with a lioncloth around his waist and a proud head without hairs. His amber eyes seemed to betray an air of longing for something, but what exactly he was longing for was something his eyes would not tell anyone.

"Ah, Plegyas, there you are," said Hades, assuming his human form and walking up to Phlegyas.

"Good to see you again," said the man who steered the swan. "You want to ferry people across?"

"Yes, in fact," said the king with a nod. "We've got three people here who are still alive, too. We're trying to get them to the place at the bottom of Cocytus, you know."

Phlegyas sent a glance over to Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi, his eyes analyzing the features on each of the people that Hades had mentioned with so few words. Ike gave him a questioning glance in return, and upon seeing this the ferryman nodded.

"Ah," said the ferry man. "I'd watch out if I were you three; there's someone here who's been talking an awful lot about you."

"I'm guessing it is all bad," said Fiordiligi."

"You would guess correctly, milady," said Phlegyas with a nod. "Just keep that in mind when you travel on my ferry."

"Sure thing," said Ike with a nod. "So, who wants to get on first?"

"I'll get on!" said Andrew, instantly jumping into the ferry.

This action was met with Gregor vigorously shaking his head, a withered hand travelling to his face rather quickly as he stepped in the ferry.

"Andrew, you are such an idiot," said the hawk laguz.

Fiordiligi's emeralds suddenly hardened towards Gregor, the gesture enough to silence the hawk substantially. After he looked away, Fiordiligi smirked and winked at Andrew. In reply, the Renais native gave a rather sincere smile at the woman as she stepped on board.

"Hm," said Lyanna as she, Lloyd, and Linus boarded the ferry at the same time. "I think you two're taking a liking to each other..."

Andrew gave Lyanna a blank look, and her own hot pink eyes twinkled a little bit. She thought something was wrong, but she was not sure what it was when suddenly she noticed Fiordiligi glaring daggers at the branded woman.

"Obviously not in that sense, then," said Soren absent-mindedly as he, Greil, Ike, and Maria boarded.

As this was seen, Hades assumed his ball form, and then he and Persephone levitated onto the ferry just behind Ike.

And with this, the crew sailed off into the mist, seeing the riverbank disappear from sight.


	10. Chapter 10: The River Tuonela

And here we are, again. Wow, I'm having less to say.

Anyways, the past circle of hell, as these people say, is the circle in which the greedy and prodigal are punished. The greedy push bags of money up the hills, and the prodigal push them down.

I am of course going by Gustave Dore's illustrations for the _Inferno_ here, as in the original epic they only pushed boulders. I personally think Dore's illustartions are more clever, actually, as it only strengthens the irony of their situation.

And the next circle we're going into? That would be the fourth circle, where the wrathful and slothful are punished. The wrathful fight on the surface, of course. As for the slothful, they're under the water.

And this is where elements of Norse mythology come into play. Originally, the river that was the *fifth* circle of hell was the river Styx. But since the Styx got put elsewhere (I'm pretty sure I was overly vague with it, though; the Styx was the river that Ike woke up next to way back at the beginning of this book of the epic.), then I had to come up with a substitute. And Lethe had no place since it's a) the worst possible river to put in hell, b) the name of a character in PoR/RD, and c) out of place since it originally appeared in the second poem of the Divine Comedy (Purgatorio, to be precise). So I turned to the Norse version of events, complete with swan that carries everyone over the river to the land of the dead.

But anyways, that's enough of me yapping about the source material. Away chapter!

* * *

Chapter 10: The River Tuonela

As several people on the boat began to talk about the events that had been happening amongst themselves, Gregor looked out into the river on the boat that was driven by the swan. The river itself had rather dark waters, but that was rather difficult to tell because he saw a bunch of people fighting each other on the surface of the river. This brought quite a bit of water up in the splashing that resulted, but all of this fighting was still occurring a great distance away from the boat. Greil looked at the hawk laguz as he surveyed the river, and he brought it upon himself to talk to Gregor.

"This place..." said Greil.

"To be honest, sir?" asked Gregor, looking at the captain of his mercenary squad. "This place kind of creeps me out a little bit. I mean, are those people in the bottom of the river?"

"The slothful, yes," said Greil as Ike stood up and walked over to them. "Elena told me that once, as she did some patch-up work in this circle of hell."

"You mean my mom goes around making sure people don't escape?" asked Ike, Greil suddenly noticing his son's presence there.

"Pretty much, yes," said Greil. "The fortifications sometimes need a little restrengthening..."

"Fancy language for 'we need to make our systems run better?'" asked Ike.

Greil nodded in reply. "Pretty much." He then looked down towards the waters of the river Tuonela, thinking about something. "I remember that my wife was down in the seventh circle before all this happened."

Ike's expression took on an expression of shock, blue eyes widening as he heard this. "Is she okay?" he asked immediately.

"Your mother can handle herself in those conditions," replied Greil with a shrug. "I just hope that nothing is going horribly wrong for her..."

Ike opened his mouth to reply when something suddenly hit the boat from underneath. This startled everybody out of their conversations, and then they all looked around. Even Phlegyas looked around for a brief second, his eyes filled with worry.

"What the hell was that?" asked Fiordiligi, startling all of those close to her.

"Whoah, Fiordiligi!" said Maria, holding her hands out in front of her in a rejective gesture. "I never though I'd hear those words come out of your mouth!"

Before much more could be brought up on this subject, the boat was hit again, and this time Andrew stood up, looking around the area.

"Oh, dear, something's trying to get us!" cried Andrew.

"Andrew, it's coming from under the boat?" asked Soren. "The wrathful don't do this kind of thing unless they really have a wish to be sent lower in hell."

The boat was hit again by this, and by now Phlegyas had turned around, his swans having stopped in their tracks.

"I don't know, Soren," replied the ship's driver as he descended into the boat after tying his swans to the front of the boat. "I think he might have a point."

And then, a clawed hand struck the side of the boat, Fiordiligi and Agniezska being forced to jump back as the boat was sent floating along the river a few feet. And then, a figure splashed out of the water and presented himself to the group, Ike, Fiordiligi, and Maria all recognizing the figure instantly.

"Katchei!" cried the three in unison.

"Ah, so you three are down in this place..." said the lizardman evilly as he grabbed onto the boat and made an attempt at getting on. "Most interesting! Maybe now I can torment you forever!"

"They're still alive!" retorted Lyanna, kicking Katchei in the face. "Now get back in the water, you overgrown lizard!"

Lyanna continued kicking the lizardman repeatedly, but no matter how many times she kicked him he would not let go of the boat, and he slowly stepped onto it. Eventually, Katchei grabbed a hold of Lyanna's heel; he held the appendage so hard that her ankle would have broken if she was not already dead.

"So much the better, then," replied Katchei cooly, sneering in Lyanna's face. "Because you're not going to do anything about it!"

Before anybody else could so much as intervene, the lizard turned around and threw the unfortunate woman out of the boat, the girl landing in the water about twenty feet away. As she landed in the water, Lloyd called out to her, but before anybody could move in her direction, there was a flash of light. When the light passed by, the group found that Ragnell was pressed to Katchei's throat, Ike knowing that Katchei could not bleed anymore but hoping that the lizardman would feel threatened by it.

"We're not gonna let you do anything!" cried Ike, hate clouding his normally calm blue eyes. "We didn't let you have your way on Magvel, and we're not letting you have your way now!"

"That's right!" chimed in Fiordiligi, gripping her staff hard with a determined air about her. "And this time I have a debt that needs to be repayed in watching you suffer! And besides, you're not wearing anything, you indecent cur!"

Katchei simply chuckled, brandishing his claws. It was at Fiordiligi's comment that everybody noticed the lizardman was standing in front of them stark naked, his muscles bulging out thanks to the water that added light to his scarlet scales.

"Indecent?" asked the lizard. "You do realize that in this place absolutely everybody is as naked as I am, right? And you also forget that I've grown bitter by the 'punishment' bestowed on me."

"Enough!" cried Andrew, proceeding to kick Katchei square in the chest to no avail. "You're going down, asshole!"

"Correction," replied Katchei, managing to flick Ragnell away from his throat and then stepping away before Ike could point the weapon at the lizard's throat again. "_You_ shall be defeated."

And before anybody could reply, Katchei moved to grab Andrew. However, he ducked down into the boat, where Soren sent a wind spell at the lizardman, sending him reeling back just a little bit. Lloyd, mindful of the slight tilting that was going on in the boat, leaned back to balance the weight, something that he was only able to do with Greil's help. So then the boat was evened out.

Katchei took a swipe at Gregor shortly afterwards, and Gregor was barely able to jump back, the claws grazing his front though thankfully not leaving any damage. He leapt off the boat and into the air, where he was able to fly.

Maria, who was standing behind Ike at this moment, saw this. Her eyes went wide with shock, but before she was able to figure out how the hawk was still able to fly with his wings the way they were, the swipe of Katchei's claws was close to her and she noticed Fiordiligi ducking under Katchei's claws.

Linus, who had brandished an axe by then, was able to whack the lizardman with the flat side of the axe. However, the madman had leaned into the axe such that the blow did not send him falling back into the river Tuonela. He then managed to kick Agniezska away just as she was aiming to hit him with her staff. This sent her knocking into Linus, and then the two of them fell back onto the side of the boat that Lloyd and Greil were trying to keep in check.

This sent the balance of the boat towards the four of them, and as Ike moved to kick the lizard the woman from Elibe had somehow managed to roll to the other side of the boat quickly enough that the boat was back on its original distribution of weight. Ike's kick connected, but it only sent Katchei further onto the boat, such that he landed on his back where Fiordiligi was standing with her staff at the ready.

Without a second wasted, Fiordiligi bashed the lizard on the head over and over again in rage, screaming at the top of her lungs as she beat him over the head repeatedly.

"You! Are! Going! To! Die! Again!" A hit from her staff accentuated the yelling of each word that Fiordiligi screamed her rage manifesting itself again as everybody just stepped back and Greil and Lloyd rolled back onto the boat to balance the weight. It was at this time that Agniezska noticed that her swings seemed to be moving themselves in a pattern, and as all of the people that had been knocked around stood up, they noticed this as well.

Before anybody was able to comment on it, though, a magic circle hovered above Katchei much in the same way that it hovered over Roartz earlier in their journey. However, this time the circle snapped shut immediately, and Katchei was nowhere to be seen.

"My goodness!" cried Persephone from where she and Hades had hovered close to Phlegyas throughout the entire fight.

"Did she just...?" asked Hades as everybody stared at the healer for a second.

Fiordiligi exhaled and inhaled deeply before noticing that Katchei was nowhere around her. Looking to her staff, her eyes bulged wide, realizing the implications of what she had done.

"Dearest me!" cried Fiordiligi. "I actually did it!"

"You were quite angry, though," offered Agniezska, straightening out her grass-colored hair. "That tends to boost the success of a sending spell. For now, that may be a one-time occurrence..."

"Still, it's better than nothing, right?" offered Gregor as he flew back with Lyanna in tow. "I found her off somewhere, by the way."

"Lyanna!" cried Lloyd and Linus, both running up to her. "Are you okay?"

"I've been through worse," said the woman as she rubbed her neck. "But it's hard trying to do anything when there are about fifty guys fighting each other right on top of you."

"Wait, the bigger question is, how is Gregor still able to fly?" asked Maria, pointing at the skeletal wings of the laguz. "There's no way he should be able to fly with his wings like that!"

"This is the underworld, remember?" asked the hawk with a wink. "I don't need the feathers anymore..."

"Makes me kind of afraid of what Tibarn would look like when he dies..." muttered Ike as Phlegyas grabbed the reins of his swans.

"Well, hopefully that'll teach that self-righteous bastard who's boss," said the boatman as he pulled on the reins and the boat moved again. "He was giving me trouble for a while."

"Really?" asked Lloyd quickly.

"I wouldn't be surprised," replied Ike with a nod. "He tried to take over Magvel. If me, Maria, and our friends hadn't come when we did, that place would be a no-man's land right now!"

Andrew did his best impression of a confused expression before crossing his arms. "So he tried to take over Magvel?" asked the burned youth. "Good thing he's down here, then."

"Nationalist," muttered Soren under his breath before a death glare from Fiordiligi and Maria silenced the mage.

"Anyways, let's get moving, shall we?" asked Phlegyas.

"Yes, let's," said Hades. "We've wasted enough time here."

And with that, nobody said anything else as the boat pulled along the river Tuonela slowly, the swans guiding the boat by strings to the opposite bank.

* * *

The boat was still moving along in the river quite placidly. By then, Katchei had undoubtedly been sent to the bottom of hell, and so the waters were as peaceful as they could be when there were still others brawling on the surface.

By this time, though, the boat had fallen completely silent. The encounter with the lizardman had sent quite a few people on the edge, and so they were on a constant look-out for anybody else that randomly decided to wade up to the boat and attack them. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be quite as daring as the lizard-man was, and so the boat sailed on in relative silence.

At this point, Maria was slowly beginning to get a little antsy where she sat. Aside from the fact that she was pregnant and travelling in the underworld, she was now wondering about many other things as well. However, the thoughts were only pervading at the moment, so she decided not to do much about the thoughts right then. However, she had the feeling her feelings would only intensify as time went on.

There was no doubt in her mind that Ike and Fiordiligi would listen to her; however, she decided not to burden them with a little something extra that would only plague their minds as well as hers. She didn't dare tell anybody else, as she knew they were only strangers in what would be a short quest. Thinking on this, Maria wondered how the four days that had passed since the start of the journey managed to go by so quickly. She felt there was something wrong with this passage of time and how fast things were changing, but she was not about to complain much at all.

It was when the boat rocked violently a few seconds later that she was jolted out of her train of thought. However, she was greeted by the sight of a pair of hands grabbing onto the edge of the boat, and then a figure got pulled up a few seconds later, looking at the group as Phlegyas stared at this.

"Oh, dear, not another one!" cried the boatman.

"Relax," said Agniezska, holding a hand out to the boat's driver as she looked at the rather large man who had emerged from the water. "This is not a wrathful sinner."

"You're certainly a new face," said Hades, shifting into his human form shortly after saying this. "What brought you here?"

"I was killed by a young lord who was accompanied by a mere child with an accent," said the man, blonde hair falling over his face as he wiped the strands from it. "They both defeated me, and I was sent here for not seeing reason."

"Wait, you don't do the actual sentencing?" asked Fiordiligi, turning to Hades.

"No," he replied simply with a nod of his head. "I just run the underworld; there's somebody else who judges the wicked."

"Hm..." said the visitor as he grabbed onto the boat a little harder. "So you are the king of all this."

"You bet he is!" cried Maria with a point of her finger.

"Maria, it's not polite to point!" cried the blonde woman.

"Don't worry about it, Fiordiligi," said Hades with a dismissive wave of his hand.

However, something sparkled in the stranger's silver eyes, and for a second he pondered.

"What is it?" asked Andrew quickly.

"Fiordiligi..." said the man. "That sounds like a name that the boy with the accent said before we engaged in battle..." said the man.

"Viordilegi?" asked Maria, doing her best to immitate the kind of accent found in the streets of Alexandra.

"Why, that was it!" replied the man, holding her hand out to the laguz.

"Wait a minute, you met Willie?" cried Fiordiligi, leaning over the boat to look the man in the eye. "Oh my God! He found land!"

"Well, that's always a good thing," said Ike. "At least we know Willie's okay."

"You knew his name..." said the man. "I guess you are his friends, then..."

"Yes," said Ike. "And you are?"

"I am Zephiel, the former king of Bern," said the man, looking sadly into the boat. "I had lead a large war on Elibe in an attempt to return the continent to the dragons..."

"What?" cried Agniezska, Lloyd, and Linus in unison, all of them equally shocked at this. "So you're..."

"My god..." said Linus. "You're prince Zephiel! The one the Fang was supposed to kill in its final days!"

"What?" asked Ike quickly. "You never said anything about killing a prince!"

"It is good they did not, though," added the former king of Bern quickly as he pulled himself so that his forearms were inside the boat. "My father tried to kill me several times. And on the last time, he almost succeeded..."

"And that was when you lost your mind..." finished Lyanna with a small sigh.

Zephiel shook his head sadly. "Please do not use that wording in my presence; it makes me feel all the worse in the bottom of this river."

"So you met Willie then..." said Fiordiligi, leaning closer.

"Not met, but yes, I did know him for the last few minutes of my life..." replied Zephiel.

The woman from Jericho looked down at the boat, her mind wandering for a brief second. When she looked up, a tear was seen running down her cheek as a sincere, relieved smile came to her face.

"Thank you for telling me this," said Fiordiligi, grabbing his hand tenderly and clasping both of her hands around the hand as if she was in prayer. "I... I was worried about him... And it kept nagging at me... So thanks. Even if you did cause a giant war that reigned destruction all over, I... I don't know what I would've done without knowing about him... So thank you..."

Zephiel smiled at the woman,

"For once, I have done something right," said the king of Bern. "You're welcome, milady. And thank you; now I'll have something good to remember during my punishment."

There was a mutual silence as Fiordiligi nodded, her tears of mixed joy and relief running over Zephiel's hand as it slowly slipped from her grasp.

"So, anything else you want to tell us before you go under?" asked Hades. "Because, you know, the longer you stay out here, the more likely you are to get a harsher punishment. And since that wouldn't be good..."

"I know..." said Zephiel. "I just wanted someone to talk to is all. It gets rather lonely down at the bottom of the river."

"So that was it?" asked Andrew, his head tilting to the side as his voice told of wonder. "And to think we got a lot more than that out of it."

"I should drop back now," said the imposing man. "If ever you should see your friend again, send him my greatest apologies."

Fiordiligi nodded, too happy to express anything in words.

And after this affirmation, Zephiel let go of the boat, and then he sank back into the waters of Tuonela, and a calm took over all people onboard as they thought of what just happened. Finally, Ike shifted where he sat and looked to where Zephiel just was.

"Well, at least we know Willie's okay," said Ike. "Now that leaves Kuranga to be seen."

"He's okay..." said Fiordiligi, looking up to the darkened sky with brightly shining emeralds.

"Hm..." said Andrew, a smirk coming to his face with the exposed muscle tissue making it all the more hideous. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're getting feelings for this 'Willie' person that we didn't know until just now."

"W-what?" asked Fiordiligi, turning to face the burned man. "Th-that's just silly! W-w-we're just great friends is all!"

"Hm, it sounds like someone's in denial here," said Gregor playfully. "And Andrew's not the kind of person to deny anything about his love life."

Almost instantly a blush formed on Fiordiligi's cheeks. "Just what are you suggesting?" asked Fiordiligi.

"Ha ha!" teased Andrew, standing up and pointing at the woman as he started dancing on the boat. "You are in lo~ove! You are in lo~ove!"

A harsh smack resounded over the waters, and the slap was so hard that there was a brief second where all of the wrathful looked to Phlegyas' boat for a second before resuming their own fights. Lyanna brought her finger up to Andrew's face threateningly, but before she could say anything she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Lyanna, calm down," said Lloyd. "They were just playing around!"

"Well, isn't that what always gets them in trouble?" asked the branded female.

"It's not like it matters much anyway," said Maria with a shrug. "Anyways, aren't we under a bit of a time stress here?"

"Oh!" cried Phlegyas, who had not dared to move the boat after this touching scene. "Of course!"

And the boat was back on its track. Fiordiligi's eyes kept tracking the spot where Zephiel had grabbed the boat until it was unseeable, her mind far away from the conversation that had been struck shortly after the boat set off. She looked up at the sky again, her eyes shining at the thought of being able to see Willie again in the world of the living. The only regret she had about the scene that had just come to pass was that Willie did not get the same assurance that she, Maria, and Ike were alive as well...

* * *

After a while of relative calm, the other side of the banks of the river Tuonela were finally visible. As they saw this, everybody smiled, rather happy to see land again.

"Finally!" exclaimed Andrew, jumping up gleefully. "We're at the other side!"

"About time, too!" said Hades as the boat slowed down to a stop. "I was wondering when those encounters would end!"

"What, all two of them?" asked Fiordiligi with a playful wink. "I guess you're quite cranky now."

"Hey!" cried Hades. He would have shifted into his human form had Persephone not hovered in front of him.

"Relax, dear," said the queen of the underworld quickly. "She was just playing."

"Indeed she was," said Soren, who was the first one onto dry land. "You seem to be rather cheerful right now."

"Well, I guess finding out your friend is alive does that to you," said Fiordiligi as a smile graced her face once again and she stepped off of the boat next to Ike and Maria.

"You mean 'friend and possible lover', right?" asked Gregor with a wink.

"You too, Gregor?" cried the lady rather perturbedly, staring at him as Andrew fell onto the ground in a fit of laughter. "What is this? Mock the concerned friend day?"

"I believe you're forgetting something..." said Agniezska jokingly as she, Andrew, and Gregor all stepped off of the boat at the same time.

"Ugh!" cried Fiordiligi, stamping her foot against the earth as the rest of the passengers stepped off of the ferry.

Ike patted the woman's shoulders without any real emotion in mind. "Oh, come on, Fiordiligi, it can't be that bad," he said. "I mean, after all, what's the worst that could happen?"

"But what if Willie doesn't return the feelings?" asked the woman.

There was a brief silence as everybody but Soren, Hades, and Persephone stared at her, a mischievous glint in their eyes.

"What?" asked Fiordiligi, feeling everybody's stares burn into her soul.

And then all at once, everybody entered a whoop at the lady, which quite surprised the blonde greatly.

"D-did I miss something?" asked the lady.

"Other than you indirectly admitting your feelings, no," replied Maria as she patted Fiordiligi's shoulder. "Thanks, Phlegyas!"

"No problem!" cried the ferryman, who then set his boat on a course back to the other side.

It was then that Fiordiligi managed to figure out what she had said and how she had very subtly been told off. As everybody walked right past her, her face contorted, her brows arching horrifically over her eyes as her hands balled into fists.

"Why, you--!!!" she exclaimed furiously at the top of her lungs.

Everybody just laughed before continuing on, almost as if expecting his reaction. The lady decided that losing her temper at such a point was not warranted, and rejoined the group while giving everybody a glare of death as they continued on into a land where smoke seemed to be rising up from the ground.


	11. Chapter 11: In The Beginning

And I'm back, with more underworld goodness.

This particular chapter is going to take the focus off of their journey, though, and it'll instead address something that becomes a rather key element in a later book of this epic. After all, who better to talk about how the world got to this point with than one of the gods themselves, right? Right?

* * *

Chapter 11: In The Beginning...

The group had made it to the fifth circle of hell. But for the first time since they had disembarked on their journey, Hades felt that they should rest a little just outside of the circle they were about to enter.

And so, the tents were all set up, and there was a small fire lit. The river Tuonela was still visible from where they were, the splashes of the wrathful providing a rather pleasant backdrop at the distance they were at. The fire seemed to light the area up a little less than it should have, and the people in the group that were still alive were left wondering how it was so dark in the afterlife.

However, this was a question left asked later. Fiordiligi and Agniezska had gone off to the side to perfect her binding arts a short distance away from the camp, and Greil, Soren, Persephone, Gregor, and Andrew had all returned to their tents for the night, leaving Ike, Maria, Lyanna, Lloyd, Linus, and Hades sitting in a circle around the fire. Hades had taken on his human form that night, and for the first time Ike was able to get a good look at the body of the king of the underworld, how it seemed battle-hardened yet did not have the scars to prove it. His arm was draped on Maria's shoulder as the group kept rather light conversation on various subjects about themselves. Ike had recently related the story of how he had liberated Tellius of Ashera's control to the other people sitting around the fire, who had met his comments mostly with nods.

"And then Yune turned all the soldiers back into human beings again, and that was pretty much it," said Ike, finishing his story as Maria leaned against his shoulder.

"Interesting," said Hades. "I knew someone had defeated Ashera, but I didn't know it was you until just now."

"It's strange," said Lyanna. "I can't believe I got killed right before everybody hung me. I mean, I could have survived all that and laughed to their stony faces!"

"Yeah, but that woudn't be very nice," pointed out Linus.

"Still, they deserve it," replied the branded girl with a wag of her finger. "Damn racists..."

"True, but wouldn't you making fun of them be stooping down to their level?" asked Lloyd as he looked at the branded woman.

"At least I'm not trying to kill them!" retorted Lyanna, sitting upright as she said this. "And besides, they were following their senators blindly. I need credit for at least being myself and for not believing that crap they made up about the brand being a crime against the Goddess."

The Reed brothers both pondered this briefly before Lloyd nodded. "Good point," he said.

"Speaking of Goddesses, I've been thinking about something," said Maria as she scooched up against her lover. "Before Ike came along, I was under the belief that Sharotal was the only goddess there was. And now that I'm here, I've been introduced to all of these extra people; Ashunera, Ashera, Yune, Latona, Elimine, and you know the rest."

"Yes," said Hades with a nod. "And...?"

"And I was wondering..." said Maria as she looked the king of the underworld in the eye. "Would you know anything about how this world was created?"

Hades nodded briefly as everybody looked to him after the question was asked.

"I do," he replied simply, picking on his nails as he said this. "In fact, I saw them create it."

"Then would you mind relating the creation of the world to us?" asked Maria as Ike looked down at her with a slightly concerned look on her face.

"I wish," said Hades with a shrug. "I can barely remember why we wanted to create this place anyways..."

"Then can you tell us what was up with the goddesses and saints?" asked Ike with a wink.

The god looked to Ike, giving him a curious look of incredulity as he asked this.

The Tellian mercenary then shifted where he sat so that one arm rested on his knee"Well, let me put it this way," he said. "At some point, all of these people must have been perfect rulers or something for the world to be in peace. But then, Latona and Elimine just become saints, Latona is turned into a staff, the Zunanma split into the beorc and laguz, Ashunera flooded the world, and Sharotal left Tellius to find Greljedo absolutely ravaged. What happened?"

"Ah," said Hades. "That part I can talk about. Even after all of the years I've seen go by, it all still feels like it happened yesterday..."

"Well, then, tell us about it!" said Maria eagerly.

"I don't know," said the king as he pointed to the other three that were sitting by the fire. "I think I might bore them."

"Bore us?" asked Linus incredulously. "Of course not!"

"I'd sit through that story any day!" added Lyanna with a smile.

Lloyd simply nodded in acknowledgement of what his brother and the Tellian woman were saying. Upon seeing this, the king of the underworld shifted a little where he sat, then shrugged lightly.

"Well, since you insist," said the king of the underworld. "When the world was created, there were the elder gods, as I believe I told you earlier, right?"

"The gods that rule over all," said Maria with a nod. "So why're they important to this?"

"Well, when they created this world, they realized they felt rather lonely all alone in their little mountain place," said Hades. "So they created the peoples of the earth to inhabit the four continents of the world. And then, to watch over them, they created five guardians to watch over the people."

"Wait, five?" asked Ike with a confused look. "The guardians were Sharotal, Ashunera, Elimine, and Latona, right?"

"Not exactly..." said Hades. "Sharotal and Ashunera looked after Tellius together. There was a different guardian watching over Greljedo."

The former cat laguz shifted in her seat, glancing nervously to Lyanna, Lloyd, and Linus before speaking. "And who would that have been?"

Hades looked to Lloyd, Linus, and Lyanna, who then nodded to the king of the underworld. With this encouragement, Hades turned to face the Tellian and the Greljedan, a great hate seeming to have formed in his eyes.

"Ilemyr..." said Hades softly.

Maria almost jumped at hearing this, Ike getting wide-eyed himself aftr hearing this statement."What?" she cried.

"You mean that demon that was trying to destroy Greljedo was guarding it for a time?" added Ike just as incredulously.

Hades nodded solemnly. "Yes," he said simply.

"But if he was guarding it, why did he try to destroy it?" asked Ike with a shrug. "I mean, everything was peaceful, right?"

"It was. Until... he... broke away from the elder gods..." replied Hades scornfully, his eyes gazing up at the sky as he said this.

The two lovers leaned forwards, curious as to what this meant. "He?" asked Maria. "Who's 'he'?"

"Loki," said the king of the underworld slowly. "Or, the 'Master', as we've all come to know him."

"And what was up with the break from the elder gods?" asked Maria.

"It's rather complicated," replied Hades. "To put it simply, Loki began tapping into a power that the other elder gods knew they could not use for any purposes at all, and he began conspiring against the rest of us for omnipotence over the earth."

Ike shrugged dumbly. "I'll bet they were pissed when they found out he was doing that..."

"They were," said the king of the underworld simply. "So they banished him to a tower in Greljedo that towered over the land in response."

"Odd," said Maria, scratching her chin. "Our adventures brought us across all of Greljedo, and yet I never saw a tower..."

"I'm getting there," replied Hades a little impatiently. "Anyways, Loki was rather angry with this; by the time we had banished him the power he had tapped into had consumed his being."

Ike nodded. "I think I know where this goes. It's something like 'he created all of the evils of the earth', doesn't it?"

"Well... That's... the shorthand version... yes..." said the god, quite surprised by this. "Actually, how it goes was that the power he had tapped into transported a box that kept all of the plagues and evils concievable in it to the tower, and from there Loki opened the box."

"Pandora's box they called it, right?" asked Lloyd. "Right after its creator?"

Hades nodded grimly. "Yes," he said. "And Loki was apparently able to excercise some control over what happened when the box was opened."

"Like...?" asked Ike and Maria simultaneously.

"Well, for starters, he caused Ilemyr to go mad," said Hades. "And after that, he went on a destructive rampage."

"Okay," said Maria while gesturing with her hand going in circles. "I still don't know where the tower comes into play..."

The king held his hands in front of him in a calming gesture before continuing. "Well, what it comes down to is that Greljedo was a much larger continent than you see it now, and when Ilemyr went crazy the elder gods were able to split the continent in half before the deranged Ilemyr did his worst. From that, Greljedo was considered a dead continent, and a new continent was created by this action."

"Oh?" asked Ike as his eyebrows arched up. "Then there's a fifth continent?"

"Yes," replied Hades. "That continent, which we've called Jal'jurgah, houses the original inhabitants of Greljedo."

"Right," said Ike with a shrug. "So then he also manipulated it so the Zunanma split into the beorc and the laguz, the demon king appeared, and the dragons had suddenly turned hostile?"

"Exactly right," said the king of the underworld with a nod. "And he instilled the beorc and laguz with an inherent hate for each other so they could hopefully wage war for all eternity, had the demon king do his thing, and had the dragons fight the humans."

"And so the land was at constant war," said Maria. "That doesn't explain the sudden change in everything."

"Well, then, the next big thing to happen was Ashunera causing the Great Flood," said Hades with an indicative gesture. "That gave everyone enough time to regroup and gather their bearings. After Ilemyr defended both parts of the fractured Greljedo, Latona defended Magvel, and Elimine defended Elibe, the guardians lost certain facets of their original beings."

Maria shifted a little. "Which meant that Ashunera split into Ashera and Yune, Latona was turned into a staff, and...?"

"Elimine lost her immortality," replied Linus decisively. "That's basically what happened."

"And what about Ilemyr defending Greljedo?" asked the depowered laguz, her head tilted to the side in curiosity. "I thought he wanted it dead?"

"He did," said the king as he fiddled with some of his hair. "I think what happened was that a facet of the old Ilemyr returned, and so he defended the continent from destruction. Didn't mean he couldn't revert to his madness afterwards, and that's just what he did..."

Ike nodded, his legs shifting a little so that he sat cross-legged in front of the fire. "So if that's true, then who were Greljedo's original inhabitants?"

"They were an entirely different variety of Zunanma from the Tellian Zunanma," said Hades as he looked to the sky. "But they weren't affected by Pandora's Box."

"Why not?" asked Maria, shifting in her seat rather curiously.

"I don't know what his line of thinking was, even to this day," replied the god with a shrug. "But I think he figured Ilemyr would have killed everybody on the continent. I don't think he counted the fact that the gods found out about his opening the box in time. I'm pretty sure Loki would've done something about that, but I think that right afterwards the different races of Zunanma started warring with each other, so he let things be. And besides, the magic of Pandora's box had long since passed the state where it could be manipulated..."

Ike nodded slowly. "And it all calmed down, right?"

"Right," said Hades. "Sharotal left Tellius just before the beginning of Ashera's war on Yune, and with her heroes defeated Ilemyr and repopulated Greljedo proper. After that, the eight legends of Elibe defeated the Dark Dragon there and restored order to their continent. And at around that time, the monsters and the Demon King had been defeated by Latona and her heroes and the war between Ashera and Yune had ended. So after all that, the period of relative peace in all the continents began."

"And what about the people on this Jal... however you say it--are they still warring?" asked Ike.

"I don't know," admitted Hades as his shoulders slumped slightly. "I think they might be, but I don't know for sure anymore."

Maria perked up. "Well, if they're still warring, then that's something we can help with!" she cried.

"I wouldn't know..." said Lyanna with a shrug.

"Eh, we'll see when the time comes," said the Tellian mercenary. "So did they name these events?"

"When they've been all but forgotten in the world of the living?" asked Lloyd objectively.

Ike nodded briefly. "Good point. My biggest question here is, why aren't the elder gods doing anything about this?"

"Don't ask me," said Hades. "They created the underworld after all that happened, put me in charge, and that's the last I've heard from them in a while. I'm guessing they're off to solve their own personal quarrels; I know they had too damn many of them in the first place."

Ike and Maria both chuckled as the king of the underworld rolled his eyes.

"I guess that's all there is to ask," said Ike with a shrug. "So then where is the underworld, and why are we here?"

"That's a question for another time, isn't it?" asked Hades, eyes darting around as if to avoid the question. "I think we should rest up now."

"Sure, sure," said Maria as everybody around the fire stood up. "One question though; if you're supposed to be immortal, why do you need to sleep?"

"Because it helps clear my head," replied the king hastily before giving the two living people a respectful bow of his head. "Anyways, I hope you'll be ready when we wake up, because we may be at the fifth circle, but we've still got quite a bit of ground to cover before we get to Cocytus."

"Right," said Ike. "See you later..."

And everybody that had been around the fire dissapeared into their tents, Fiordiligi and Agniezska still perfecting her binding magics as everyone slowly drifted off to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12: Shocking Development

And we're back to continue the journey, all! Watch as they go past flaming tombs and find out something crazy!

So let's get with it, shall we?

* * *

Chapter 12: A Shocking Development

The group had dismantled camp earlier that morning, and now they were quite distracted by the sight in front of them.

Ike had wondered earlier what the smoke was coming from; now that they were by the source, they found that it was a series of flaming tombs, all arranged in a geometric pattern as the smoke fumes went up to the sky. Maria found herself holding her breath in front of this sight, and she noticed also that there was enough of an opening in each tomb to see each sinner in as they burned in these tombs for all eternity.

"Wow," said Ike simply. "Who gets punished here?"

"Heretics," replied Greil simply.

"Heretics, huh?" asked Maria. "Say Ike, I wonder who's gonna wind up here..."

"The Senate?" asked Hades. "They're all down in a deeper circle of hell. I wouldn't worry about them if I were you."

"Aww..." sighed Fiordiligi softly. "I was hoping to meet some to laugh at their faces!"

"They were corrupt, hence why they're not here," stated Soren matter-of-factly. "But anyways, we're not here to gawk. Let's get moving."

"Well, okay," said Maria as the group began to move. "But once we meet these bastards, I'm giving them a piece of my mind!"

Ike laughed quite heartily at this, patting Maria's back. "I wish," he said. "Those guys aren't to be messed with."

"Well, look who's in control of the situation," pointed out Agniezska. "They have no power over you now."

"Yeah, uh, it's kinda hard to have power over anyone when you're trapped in a lake of boiling pitch," said Andrew with a shrug. "Just saying, you know?"

"Ah, so they're down there," said Fiordiligi, smirking evilly as she rubbed her hands together. "Let's throw rocks at them..."

Greil shook his head, still surprised that they were moving nowhere. "We'll think of ways to torment them when we get there," said the mercenary captain. "Now let's get moving!"

Without another word, the group stepped forward, looking at the various people that were trapped in their flaming tombs, almost all of the occupants of the tombs moaning in pain as they were burned for all eternity.

As they moved on, however, they heard the voice of a man crying out angrily at somebody. When the group approached, they saw the burning visage of a man who was shouting obscenities at whatever God there was. Fiordiligi, always one to go for a conversation, leaned in close to the tomb so that her face was visible to the burning man as he screamed and writhed in agony.

"Why, hello there!" shouted Fiordiligi so she could be heard over the man's yelling. "Why're you cursing the name of God?"

There was a brief silence as the man regarded the blonde lady, but he shrugged this off and returned to shouting at the top of his lungs before answering.

"He abandoned me!" he said, his face contorting in pain as he tried to suppress the pain long enough to have a conversation. "He abandoned me when I did his services well!"

"And what kinds of services did you do?" asked Fiordiligi. "Enslaving people?"

"You... you bitch!" screamed the angry bishop, his face seeming to project out of his flaming tomb. "I'll...! I'll...!"

"You'll what?" asked Fiordiligi. "How long have you been here, anyway?"

"Seven and a half years..." said the man. "I am the bishop Oro of Etruria."

Agniezska immediately shook her head angrily. "Those damn bishops never learn, do they?"

"Apparently not," said Linus. "Still as corrupt as ever..."

"Shut up!" cried Oro quite angrily. "I was doing the will of God!"

"Enslaving people for your own ends is doing the will of God?" asked the lady from Jericho quite loudly. "I thought that you were supposed to be accepting of everybody! God doesn't work with slavery, he works against it! Are you stupid or what?"

"You... You remind me of that brown-haired kid with the strange accent who flung fireballs everywhere" said Oro.

At this comment, Ike and Maria both leaned in, and Hades flickered a little. The action of the king of the underworld went unnoticed by the rest of the group as they paid attention to the three living people. Persephone, however, noticed this, and suddenly distanced herself from her husband.

"What?" asked Ike. "You know Willie?"

"That was the imbecile's name?" asked Oro quite angrily. "You knew him, didn't you?"

"Yes, we did!" cried Maria. "And you better not call him an imbecile behind his back, you prick!"

Fiordiligi touched Maria and Ike's shoulders quickly. "Wait, you two," she said quickly. "Something doesn't add up."

The Tellian mercenary turned to Fiordiligi, giving her a slightly confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Guys!" exclaimed Fiordiligi. "This guy says he died seven and a half years ago! He also says he met Willie."

"Yeah," said Ike with a shrug. "So?"

"Damn it, don't you get it?" cried the exasperated lady. "We were separated from the rest of the group six days ago! How could he have died seven and a half years ago and still met Willie if he didn't leave Greljedo before?"

Maria and Ike both looked at each other, suddenly catching on to what Fiordiligi was trying to say.

"Wait a minute..." said Maria, the bishop burning in the tomb all but forgotten as her glare fixed itself on Hades.

At this, the ball of grey light yelped, and then it tried running away. Before he could get far, though, Fiordiligi held up her staff, effectively stopping Hades with her magic as the magic circle appeared beneath the king.

"Fiordiligi!" cried Andrew as he went to her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Get back here, asshole!" screamed Fiordiligi, shocking everybody with her decadent language. "You're not going anywhere until I get some answers!"

Lyanna grabbed the staff, trying to shake Fiordiligi off of her concentration. "Damn it, Fiordiligi, do you know what kind of treason this is considered to be?" asked the girl.

"I'm still alive, so I've got plenty of time to make it up to him anyways!" screamed the indignant woman, effectively shaking off Lyanna. "Now give me some answers or so help me Sharotal I'm sending you with the rest of these creeps right now!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" cried Hades, shifting into his human form and holding his hands up in surrender. "I give up. You've found me out."

"About time, husband," said Persephone crossly in her light form. "I thought I told you to tell them immediately. What is this about you hiding things from them?"

"P-persephone!" squealed the king of the underworld.

Fiordiligi scowled and dropped her staff, the magic circle below the god phasing out of existence. All eyes were on her and the other two people who were alive as they all looked at Hades quite angrily.

"Now, give us some answers!" said Fiordiligi. "How come he knows Willie even though he died seven and a half years ago and we've only been here six days?"

"You haven't actually been in hell for six days," said Hades slowly as he turned to face the incensed trio.

"What?" asked Maria angrily, clutching her belly. "You mean we've been here for seven and a half years?"

"Yes!" cried Hades, getting onto his knees. "I was hoping you wouldn't catch on, but--!"

"You mean while we've been journeying for what seems to be six days here, Willie's gone and had adventures of his own?" cried Ike. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"You wouldn't have believed me!" cried Hades.

Maria's ear twitched as she heard this. "We wouldn't have believed you?" asked Maria. "If anybody can shift into a human form and a ball of light at will, I would've believed them any day! Why, if you had said that to get out of the underworld I had to kill Andrew again I would've believed you!"

"Oh, great going, Maria!" cried Andrew angrily. "You couldn't leave it--?"

A loud smack of a hand hitting something hard was heard over the ruckus as Andrew's head lurched forward.

"Damn it, Andrew, this isn't the time!" cried Gregor, eyes glaring hard into the Magvellian's own eyes.

"Now, I want some straight answers, and I want them now!" said Fiordiligi. "How is it tha I've been living six days while he's been living seven and a half years? Huh?"

"D-don't ask me!" replied Hades, who by now was quite frightened by this. "The elder gods made it to be this way so that all of the damned that live here live in the time of the mortals, and that the virtuous ones live in the time of the immortals!"

"So you mean we've been on a different time track all this time?" asked Ike, approaching the king of the underworld with anger ridden all over his blue eyes. "Did you even do anything?"

"Y-yes I did!" cried Hades. "J-just ask Persephone!"

Offended, the queen of the underworld shifted into her human state, a glare ridden on her eyes as she stared down at a now prostate Hades.

"You want me to answer their question?" asked the queen angrily. "I will do no such thing."

"B-but Persephone!" cried the immature king. "You're the one in charge of it!"

"You failed to explain one thing to them, so now you must explain everything!" barked the female, rage showing in her face. "This is your fault; now it is up to you to fix it!"

"B-but...!" said Hades hesitantly.

Fiordiligi shook her head and raised her staff almost immediately, and suddenly the man found the magic circle underneath him again, threatening to snap shut as everybody failed to gawk at the Greljedan lady's threat to he king.

"Agg!" he screamed. "I'll talk! I'll talk! Just, don't do that to me!"

"Good," said Fiordiligi as she let down her staff. The magic circle dissapeared again, and Hades slowly stood up, his head bowed solemnly.

"There's a crystal that can be activated so that the immortal's timeline and the mortal's timeline can be synced," he began. "This is known as 'Freya's Crystal'. Basically, if you use it in the mortal realm it can take you back in time to the time when you first entered the realm of the immortal while still being in the mortal realm."

"So there's a way to go back?" asked Maria.

"You can only go back for six hours before you are whisked away, though," said Hades. "I've been saving it lately, as I don't quite know what's going on up there..."

"Oh, of course you do!" cried Ike indignantly. "You lied to us about how time works in this place, what else can you lie about?"

"Ike, does it really matter?" asked Maria as she patted his shoulder. "We can go back and change whatever happened, and everything will be all good. Right?"

"You'll have to figure out the problem first, but yes," said Hades with a slight nod. "You must be in a small room when it activates, though, as it will pull whoever is in the area into the warp back in time."

"And how do we initiate this time warp, anyhow?" asked Fiordiligi, now considerably less cross.

"Simply hit the crystal against something as hard as you possibly can," replied Hades. "There. I've said everything I care to tell you about."

Fiordiligi walked up to him and inspected him.

"Good," said the lady. "But I'm not done with you yet, you bastard!"

And with this, Fiordiligi delivered a harsh slap against Hades' person, the sound resounding over all of the moaning and yelling that was going on around them. The lady glared at the king with emeralds full of hate.

"That's for keeping quiet," she said. "And if you keep your mouth shut about anything else, then that's going to be amplified thousands of times over. Understand, asshole?"

And with this, Fiordiligi turned in the direction they had been heading in when they stumbled across Oro, Ike and Maria both following behind her as the rest of the group stood there, quite dumbfounded by this. Ike turned around to see the rest of the group, suddenly finding nobody following them.

"Well?" he bellowed. "Are you people going to follow us or not? Now that we're wandering here for years, we've really gotta move it! So move!"

With this, the man walked farther into the smoke, and finally Andrew stepped forward, the rest of the group soon following behind them involuntarily as they were still trying to get over the shock of what Fiordiligi had threatened Hades with twice.

* * *

Fiordiligi was still quite furious with Hades when the group came upon a boiling river of blood upon which the group saw various people struggling. Beyond this boiling river of blood, one was able to see a rather large forest with the corpses of dead people hanging from them, their expressions empty and listless. The stench of burned skin rang throughout the air, but even this was not enough to stir the Greljedan woman out of her anger as she looked straight ahead of her. Hades had been silent the entire walk through the fifth circle, looking down on the ground as he advanced in his human state with Persephone quite bitterly hovering around him. However, Ike and Maria had both gotten over it, and thus they looked to the rest of the group as they rather slowly came up from behind them.

"Okay, so we're at Phlegethon," said Linus.

"Phlegethon?" asked Ike as he looked into the river. "What's this?"

"It's the start of the sixth circle of hell," said Lloyd with a shrug. "Phlegethon is where the violent against people are."

"And what's in the forest beyond?" asked Maria as she pointed at it.

"That would be where the suicides are punished," said Greil calmly.

"Oh, no, we're gonna have to deal with L'arachel again, aren't we?" asked Ike, groaning and shaking his head.

"Depends on whether you stay away from the branches or not," replied Gregor. "And their corpse hangs on the branches, so it shouldn't be too hard to avoid them.

"I hope you're right..." said Maria with a shrug as one of her hands fell over the bump in her belly that had recently begun to enlarge itself. "But my first question is, how do we get across?"

Andrew's eyes scanned the area before they fell on a small strip of land that Fiordiligi was already crossing. Seeing the woman crossing the river, Andrew yelped and ran after her.

"Wait, Miss Fiordiligi, hold on a sec!" cried Andrew as he ran over to the strip of land and ended up skipping over it due to how the heat singed his burned feet.

Maria simply shrugged as she saw the native of Renais run across. "Well, there's our answer," she said. "Let's move."

The group then moved to the little strip of land, and when they crossed it they found themselves immersed in the forest, where it turned out that no light went through.


	13. Chapter 13: The Sixth Circle

And the shit's hit the fan, Fiordiligi is pissed, and we've been introduced to the next book's gimmick. So let's talk about that, shall we?

Basically, Book 4 is going to start at the end of the book, where we find that Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi have been dumped into Elibe, where things don't seem to be well. So then Fiordiligi has control of a crystal that sends them back in time so they can fix things; however, they can only spend six hours in the past before they're whisked back to the future, so the trick is that they don't know everything about why certain things happen until later, and it takes them a while to get the timeline to turn out just right. This was the big turmoil that Kuranga referred to at the end of the spinoff book; basically, they'll be replaying the same days and the same six hours several times while tweaking things to see what went wrong. Basically, think "The Butterfly Effect", except with medieval fantasy and a happy ending.

And of course, with each different timeline, the fates of the characters will change. Willie will live in some timelines, he'll be dead in some timelines, he'll have his Cockney accent in some, and he'll finally be pronouncing 'h' and letters like that properly in some. Same thing with Kuranga: however, know that in the one true timeline Kuranga gets himself killed in the six hours that are supposed to transpire.

So that's the next book's gimmick. Now, let's move on with this book before we get too carried away, shall we?

* * *

Chapter 13: The Sixth Circle

Fiordiligi was still quite a ways ahead of the group, even in the dense forest. However, she had slowed down enough that Ike and Fiordiligi could see her in the foilage and the corpses that were hanging from the trees.

The forest they had entered turned out to be a little more intimidating than Fiordiligi had hoped for, and so she had slowed down considerably, looking at the bodies hanging off of the trees, the only truly lifeless things in hell. It was an eerie feeling, seeing the corpses hanging from the trees motionlessly. Fiordiligi couldn't quite place it.

Maria and Ike were having the same dilemma, although this time they had the rest of the group with them to share their bewildered glances around the place. The cat laguz especially seemed creeped out by the corpses around them hanging from the trees. Finally, Maria gulped quite loudly, and turned to the dead people.

"My god, the suicides are creepy..." she said.

"Oh, you're telling me?" asked Andrew as they walked through the forest. "I never thought I'd see motionless bodies in hell!"

"Honestly, neither did I," said Lloyd. "I just wish there was some way we could get past this..."

"If only," added Hades.

He would have continued if not for a shocked gasp just in front of them. Soon after, Hades saw Fiordiligi run straight for the group again, her hands grabbing hold of Ike's shirt as she shook it, shock in her eyes as she looked back.

"She's there!" cried the woman, her tone very frightened as her jade eyes looked back. "And the tree talked to me!"

"Huh?" asked Ike, walking forward.

It was then that he saw a tree with L'arachel's corpse hanging off of it. He came closer and inspected the tree that Fiordiligi had mentioned over before shrugging.

"I don't see much for it to talk through," said Ike with a shrug.

"Because you're not using your imagination enough, you big dummy!" screamed the tree behind him.

This surprised the whole group, such that everybody's eyes were on the tree, and then the corpse hanging from the tree.

"L'arachel?" asked Maria quietly.

"You better believe-- ow!" cried the tree, suddenly pausing after its pain.

"Wait, princess L'arachel?" asked Andrew quickly. "How'd you end up here?"

"She killed herself after finding out she propelled the cause of evil," said Ike with his hands crossed in front of his chest, Ragnell buried into the ground next to him.

Agniezska's eyebrows twitched before she spoke. "Well, I would be quite surprised if she was--"

"Are you kidding me?" interrupted the deceased princess of Rausten in tree form, the tree perfectly still. "Ow! I'm in constant pain!"

"Well, it serves you right for being so damn pretentious!" cried Fiordiligi, finally coming back to the front of the group.

"Pretentious?" asked L'arachel. "Me?"

Maria rubbed one of her ears before she spoke. "And even if you weren't, you were still annoying as hell whenever you were all 'blah blah blah for the good of humanity blah blah blah.'"

"W-what?" asked the princess angrily. "Y-you too?"

"And me," said Ike, shaking his head. "You really became good at making people angry."

"Why, you--!" cried L'arachel.

"Hm, it seems you forgot you're a tree," added Lyanna, walking up to the tree and poking it to remind the suicidal woman what it was she was doing. "There's really not a whole lot you can do about that, hm?"

L'arachel had nothing to say to this, the branches of the tree that she had become absolutely unmoving as the silence pervaded the air.

"I don't know," said Linus with a shrug. "Is it really such a good idea to make fun of someone who's in constant pain?"

"Well, since you put it that way..." said Lyanna, rubbing her chin in thought.

"I... guess," said Fiordiligi with a shrug. "Is there any way to allieve the pain?"

"Break one of my branches..." said the woman.

"W-what?" cried Andrew and Fiordiligi simultaneously.

"B-but wouldn't that... you know...?" asked Gregor.

"The way this circle works is different," said Persephone, taking on her human form as Hades hovered around in his light form towards the back of the group. "To allieve oneself of the constant pain, one must cause pain to another."

"What kind of sense does that make?" asked Ike with a shrug.

"Just, trust my word," said Persephone.

Fiordiligi stared up into the branches of the tree. Seeing a branch that looked easy to break, she reached for it, and when her hand clasped around the branch it snapped off.

"Oh..." shuddered L'arachel, her voice sounding much more relieved. "Thank you..."

"Right..." said Ike. "Now can we get going here?"

"Whoah, Ike, what's with the sudden rush to get out of here?" asked Gregor with a shrug.

"We don't have a whole lot of time," said Maria as Persephone moved wordlessly. "We've apparently got a continent to save, and save it we must."

Ike nodded to confirm this. "And since time's flying right by us as we speak, we need to move," he added.

"Yeah," said Fiordiligi with a shrug as she patted the tree that was L'arachel. "No problem, princess."

With this, the group moved on rather quickly, Andrew looking back at the tree.

"Princess L'arachel of Rausten?" asked Andrew once again.

He was greeted with a bonk on the head from Lyanna, who shook his head.

"Weren't you paying attention?" asked the branded female as she walked ahead.

Rubbing his head, the Magvellian youth turned around and wordlessly followed the group, Hades following in his light form not too far behind from Andrew.

* * *

Eventually, Ike saw a break in the forest. He gravitated towards this, Maria and Fiordiligi following him without missing a beat. To get a good look at his surroundings, he took a peek in between the trees, giving the rest of the group an opportunity to catch up in the process.

They were then greeted with quite an unforgetable sight; in the field ahead of them they saw a large stretch of desert extend before them with flaming particles flying all over the place. Various groups of people were seen; some were lying down, some were sitting, and still others were wandering aimlessly in rather small groups. All of them were being hit by the flames that darted in the air. Ike was so astounded he barely noticed the rest of the group creeping up on him. When he did though, he chose not to look at them, his gaze fixated on the sight before him.

"So..." asked Maria awkwardly. "Who gets punished here?"

"Blasphemers, sodomites, and userers," replied Greil. "The blasphemers are the guys lying down, the usurers are the guys sitting down, and the sodomites are the ones wandering in groups."

"Hm..." said Fiordiligi, her brow arching up as she took note of this. "I wonder what would happen here..."

"I've a feeling, though," said Hades, finally speaking for the first time since his tussle with Fiordiligi. "I think this is where the person that escaped might have been before."

"Oh, do you?" asked Lyanna, stepping out of the forest. "Tell us about it when we get there."

"Aw, come on, why can't he say anything now?" asked Andrew pleadingly. "The suspense is killing me!"

"You're already dead," replied Gregor with a slight chuckle as he stepped out. "Now get under my wings if you don't want to get burned."

"Well, okay..." said Andrew, quickly ducking under the hawk's wings as the particles of fire floated around them.

The rest of the group followed close behind without very many more words.

After quite some time, however, Hades had walked ahead, frowning heavily as his grey eyes hovered around the landscape seeing absolutely nothing there.

"Oh, no," he groaned. "This can't be good."

"What is it?" asked Greil as the group came over to Hades.

"I think I've figured out who our escapee is..." said the king of the underworld. "And I don't think things are going well up there since he's up there..."

"Why?" asked Ike quickly. "Who is this escapee?"

"Nergal..." said Hades, looking up at the sky as he said this.

"Nergal?" asked Agniezska, instantly springing at attention when she heard the name.

Linus growled angrily, his left eye twitching as his hands clenched into a pair of fists. "That blackheart!" cried Lloyd to add to this.

"Nergal?" asked Fiordiligi, her anger towards Hades forgotten as this new development came along. "Who is he?"

"He was a black-hearted soul, he was," replied Persephone as her ball form hovered around them. "He tried to take over the world by stealing the life force of dragons."

"Whoah, he wanted to kill _dragons_ to feed his thirst for power?" asked Maria in disbelief. "Good Sharotal, he would've feasted on Greljedo and Tellius if he had known that they existed!"

"Thank god he didn't," added Ike.

Andrew noticed everything going on around him before looking at the empty spot on the ground that Hades was staring at. He blinked a few times before standing up and shrugging. "And what was he punished for?"

"Blasphemy," said Hades. "I would've put him in Phlegethon if I had been the one to judge where each person went, if you know what I mean."

"But it makes sense since stealing life force is akin to walking away from the gods, right?" asked Gregor with a shrug.

"I guess," replied the king. "The fact of the matter is that if we let him stay up there for too long, only the other gods know what's gonna happen..."

"Well, at least we've got that time crystal, right?" asked Fiordiligi.

Ike, Andrew, and Hades all gave her a rather odd glance at the woman, but then Ike and Hades nodded, realizing what she meant.

"Wait, I don't understand," said Andrew. "How is the time crystal a good thing?"

"Well, it allows us to go back in time, right?" asked Fiordiligi with a wink.

"Well, yeah..." said Andrew before the thought occurred to him. "Oh! I get it!"

"Took ya long enough, Andrew!" teased Lynna as she lightly pinched Andrew's skin. This elicited a yelp from the native of Renais.

"But this is still serious," said Hades. "I know we cannot afford to waste another minute here!"

Ike shook his head. "Then what're we waiting for?" asked the Tellian mercenary. "Let's move!"

With this, barely anything else was said before the group moved off into the desert, braving the flaming particles that were sent all over the place to the whims of the wind.

Eventually, the group came down to another cliff face that pointed straight down. Fiordiligi, who was one of the first to notice it, ran over to the cliff almost instinctively and peered over it into the inky blackness below.

"And here's another ledge," she said.

Ike was paying more attention to the abrupt break of the flames that were flying around the desert when the cliff face was reached, but he nodded as he shrugged.

"First one we've come to in a while," said Ike. "I guess we're heading to the seventh circle soon?"

"You bet," said Hades. "We've got a lot of ground to cover once we go down there."

"That's great, but how are we gonna do that?" asked Maria as she peered down into the pit.

A great beast suddenly flew into view, its rise to eye level so sudden that Fiordiligi stepped back, eliciting a light gasp of shock as everyone else looked straight at the creature. The creature had a rather disproportionate body, its wings jutting out of its back in a way that suggested it should not have been flying. Its face gave off an air of honesty, but the detail that drew everybody's attention was the scorpion tail that jutted out prominently from behind the creature in question.

"Ah, wonderful timing," said Hades simply as he beckoned the creature closer to him.

"Ah, what are you doing!?" cried a rather frightened Maria as the creature advanced towards the king of the underworld.

"Calm down," said Hades with a smile as he routed the creature onto the land. "I've got this covered!"

The king immediately ate his words, though, for then the creature landed suddenly with such force that the god gave an expression of pain before freeing his foot from underneath the bulky creature, crying out and hopping around on one leg.

"Yeah, sure," said Andrew mockingly. "The king of the underworld, master of all that goes on down here, and purveyor of truth, can't keep his foot from getting crushed by an oversize bug!"

This earned him yet another smack from Lyanna, the branded woman's hot pink eyes glaring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't piss that beast off!" snapped the woman.

"Right..." said Ike as he approached the creature. "Can we just get on this thing already before this Nergal person does enough damage to wherever he ran off to?"

"Yes..." said Hades, having fallen over on his side, clutching his foot with a grimace on his face. "Just get on... and I'll join you guys shortly... ow..."

Gregor chuckled lightly at the last word of Hades' sentence, but this was quickly met by a slap to the back of his head from Lyanna.

"You too?" asked Lyanna angrily.

"What?" asked Gregor with a shrug as Andrew was seen shaking his head.

"You know what!" cried Lyanna as she walked up to the creature and pulled herself up on its back.

As the rest of the group helped themselves onto the back of the creature and as Hades eventually stood up, Gregor simply shook his head, flapping his wings a little as he shrugged at them.

With this, they descended into the big black abyss beneath them, the creature seeming to snarl at them seemingly in a way that indicated hate.


	14. Chapter 14: War in the Seventh Circle 1

All right, here we go with some stuff that finally happens! Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long, but this idea just came to me, and I was all 'oh, hey, action! Let's get back to action!'. So here you have this chapter, in which ass is kicked, revelations are discovered (especially the 'What the Christ' revelation that was thrown in there), and, well, ass is kicked. Away chapter!

* * *

Chapter 14: War in the Seventh Circle Part 1

As the creature slowly flew down, the sounds of fighting were suddenly quite audible to the group. Hades, who was in his human form, frowned at this development.

"This can't be good..." said Hades.

This grabbed the attention of the three living people, who looked at he king of the underworld.

"Why?" asked Ike.

"There's a lot of fighting going on down there," said Hades as he looked into the abyss below. "Odd since the only things that should be fighting are the thieves..."

"Do you think there's been a hijacking?" asked Fiordiligi.

Before Hades was able to reply, the creature below them let out an inhuman wail, and suddenly the whole group found themselves grabbing on to the beast as it plummeted down the rest of the abyss.

"What the--?" cried Linus loudly as they plummeted towards the ground.

"Hang on!" cried Andrew.

A few seconds after this was shouted, the creature collided with the ground with an unceremonious boom. Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi were all on top of the creature, and so they survived the fall. Hades and Persephone had both shifted into their ball form just before impact, so they were hovering around them. The two of them soon assumed their human forms, shock ridden on their faces. Maria had landed on her back against the creature, so thankfully no harm was done to the baby as she was quickly pulled up by Ike and Fiordiligi.

However, their deceased friends had been knocked out by the fall, and so the three of them were left to stare around at the violence going on around them.

All around their persons, there were naked men fighting all over the place. All of them were markless, all of them seemed to have quite a temper, an they were all screaming at the top of their lungs. However, they were so busy fighting the demonic guards of the place that they did not even look at the five of them.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Maria.

"I don't know, but it's not good," said Hades, looking at all of the fighting surrounding them. "We've gotta get somewhere safe."

As they were about to move to the side, however, Fiordiligi felt a hand grab her brusquely. Noticing this, the group turned to the direction where Fiordiligi felt the pull only to notice a familiar face was trying to pull them. Fiordiligi was not sure how she remembered the man's face, but the mere sight of his visage there caught the lady greatly off guard for a little while.

"Byron?" asked Fiordiligi, careful not to scream to attract attention to them.

"No questions!" he said quickly. "Take a few people with you and let's get out of here before these bastards realize you're here!"

Nodding quickly, Ike and Fiordiligi proceeded to move towards the others, picking up Andrew, Agniezska, and Soren as quickly as they could. Hades was a little hesitant before his wife grabbed his arm.

"Damn it husband, do you want to restore order here or not?" asked the woman so uncharacteristically brusquely that even Hades was surprised.

After this comment, it did not take any extra amount of convincing for Hades to grab Lloyd and Lyanna. Before Hades could protest that there were not enough people to take the rest, he found that the condemned man that Fiordiligi had recognized had run in there and picked up Gregor as well.

"We're gonna have to leave the rest of them," said the man known as Byron to the king of the underworld. "We'll have to come back for them later."

And with this, the condemned man moved to the front of the formation, Ike having Andrew and Soren slung over his shoulders with Fiordigi and Maria both carrying Agniezska behind him. Hades had Lyanna slung over one shoulder with Persephone assisting him in carrying Lloyd with him.

This small group eventually worked their way into a small cave in the cliff face where the man finally slowed to a stop, panting as he waited for the rest of the group to come down. As they slowed to a stop, Fiordiligi came to the stranger that had saved them, shock all over her face.

"Byron?" asked the lady quite quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"I was punished as a seducer..." said Byron, rubbing the back of his head.

"Whoah, you actually bedded someone?" asked Maria bewilderedly. "I knew you were a perv, but I never expected you to actually get in bed with someone!"

"You foul--!" shouted Hades.

"Silence!" said Fiordiligi, angry at this display of rashness. "He may have been perverted, sure, but at heart he was a good man!"

"Fiordiligi?" asked the Gardelian general confusedly. "I thought you hated my guts?"

"I hated your perverseness," replied Fiordiligi. "But behind all that, I regarded your military prowess and your desire to do your country well quite warmly. Also, because your attempts to get into my dress, if you will, were sometimes quite funny..."

"Aw, I'm flattered..." said the general, blushing slightly as he looked at Fiordiligi.

"Enough!" bellowed Hades angrily, fed up with the pleasantries. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you working with us?"

Byron shrugged before looking at the king squarely in the eyes.

"I'm working with you because unlike the rest of these assholes I'm not really evil," replied Byron. "Now, just follow me, and once we get to safer ground me and a few others will be more than glad to explain what happened here. So until then, relax."

This effectively kept the king's mouth shut as he found nothing to say to Byron.

"Now come on," said the general as he moved back to the front of the group. "We shouldn't stay here much longer."

And without a word, he ran down the rest of the cave, Ike and the gang following him quickly. Hades hesitated before he followed, but nevertheless he felt something bad was about to happen.

* * *

Eventually, when the group surfaced above ground, they found themselves on a rather large island in a vast lake of boiling pitch. On this island was a rather small gathering of three dead people standing around. Ike and his two friends both huffed rather heavily after the long walking of carrying unconscious bodies around. Thankfully, during their trip through the caves Andrew had woken up, so he was following Fiordiligi now as she and Maria carried Agniezska down with Soren still slung over Ike's shoulder.

As soon as Byron emerged, the group found that the eyes of the dead people had averted towards Byron and the small group. Almost immediately, the only clothed member of the group was seen looking straight at Ike, the hole in her torso being ignored as Ike seemed to recognize the woman's face.

"Mother?" he asked quickly.

"Ike?" asked the woman as Fiordiligi and Maria both gave her odd looks. "Is that you?"

"Mom!" he said quickly, nearly dropping his mage friend as the woman tackled him to the ground.

Before they could relish in this, though, Hades ran over to the woman's side. "Elena?" he asked. "What happened here?"

The bluenette looked up as Maria and Fiordiligi both looked at each other, and then she sat on the ground.

"I was down here doin mission work, and before I knew it news that Nergal had successfully escaped had gone through," she said quickly. "And after that they pretty much overthrew everything down here!"

"Yeah!" shouted a rather short naked girl as she nodded. "The thieves started it, I can tell you that much!"

"Now, now, Cath, let's not get started with that," replied Byron as he set Gregor down on the ground next to him. "We've got a lot to talk about here, and we're not starting until our friends here wake up."

"Well, Byron, I must protest," replied a shrivelled old man, also naked and with a face that Ike recognized all too well. "They must have burning questions."

"I'm not explaining the same thing twice," replied the Greljedan general.

"Senator Hertzel?" asked Ike, looking at the old man with wonder in his eyes.

"Ah, Ike, was it?" asked the aged senator as he acknowledged the mercenary.

"Wait, what?" asked Maria and Fiordiligi at the same time.

"Hm?" asked Elena, looking towards the two confused women. "Are you Ike's friends?"

"Yeah," said Maria with a shrug. "Who're you to him?"

Ike's azure eyes were suddenly directed at Maria with a slight hint of reproachment in them. "Maria, be careful about what you say to my mother," replied Ike stolidly. "And Hertzel was probably the only member of the Senate whose heart was anywhere near the right place."

The laguz gasped, attracting more attention from the others around her as she quickly covered her mouth in shock.

"Don't worry about it, dear," said Elena encouragingly, a smile showing on her face as she patted Maria's shoulder. "And you are Ike's friend, I assume?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Maria with a nod. "So is Fiordiligi over here. I'm Maria, by the way."

"Ah, good," said Elena.

"And who the heck are you?" asked Ike, indicating the young thief that was next to him.

"Oh, me?" asked the young woman, brushing back a few stray lochs of red hair. "I'm Cath. Nice ta meet ya."

"And you're here, why?" asked Ike.

"I stole from the rich and gave to the poor," said Cath nonchalantly. "Nothing more. Can't say I agree with them, though, since those damn nobles always steal things from the lower class!"

"Cath!" cried a slightly outraged Hertzel. "I tell you again; that was one isolated incident! Not all nobles are as evil as that man who invaded your home!"

"Yeah, please do spare us that talk for now," said Byron with a somewhat peeved expression on his face. "Now, I guess we'll wait for the sleeping beauties here to wake up, right?"

"And when they do, you better start explaining or I'll have Agneizska bind you!" shouted Hades angrily.

Andrew, who had been standing there the whole time, simply shrugged at these developments, instead preferring to look at the lake of boiling pitch that surrounded them on all sides of the island.

* * *

Quite some time had passed before Soren, the last unconscious person to wake up, had finally woken up. As soon as the now somewhat tell-tale groan was heard from Soren's direction, Byron smiled rather amusedly and nodded.

"Ugh..." said the mage as he sat up. "What happened?"

"The creature fell, apparently," said Fiordiligi as Soren looked around him. "And now we're here, on this island in the middle of nowhere."

Agniezska, Lloyd, Lyanna, and Gregor all sat in a circle around the people that had brought them back to consciousness, and so Byron nodded in affirmation here.

"So what is going on?" asked Soren as he looked at the faces around him.

"That is what we shall find out soon," replied Persephone as she looked to the general of Gardelia.

"Okay," said Byron, clearing his throat. "So what happened was this. We were living normally in the underworld, right?"

"Well, as normally as you can live in hell, anyways," replied Hades.

"Right," replied the general. "Anyways, we were doing that when suddenly we noticed a great light being sent down to our circle. From above. It was really wierd, I tell you."

"Huh?" asked Hades, quickly. "I guess Nergal did that?"

"I guess," said Elena with a shrug.

"But that doesn't make any sense," replied Ike. "How did none of the people on the seventh circle notice the light?"

"I guess he wanted to let us know first," said Byron. "I think that whoever sent the light wanted to stir a rebellion in the underworld from the bottom up."

"Then why not start from Cocytus?" asked Fiordiligi quickly.

Byron gave Fiordiligi a rather funny look before shrugging lightly. However, Hades nodded, understanding Byron's point.

"The people of Cocytus are frozen in a giant lake of ice," replied the king of the underworld. "Anybody that would want to start a rebellion would get absolutely nothing done if they tried it from Cocytus."

"Huh?" asked Maria and Ike at the same time.

Persephone let off a soft sigh. "You shall see when we arrive there," replied the queen serenely.

"Anyways, so then you saw that light, and then what?" asked Lloyd, trying to bring the conversation back on track.

"Well, after that, people were just confused and nothing really happened," said Byron. "I think Cath can tell you more from here."

"Right!" said the cheery little thief girl. "So then, it started from my part of the circle, where we were distracted for so long that the snakes that were the people that were chasing me started biting the guards!"

"And what did that do?" asked Ike.

"It turned them into snakes!" replied the youth. "We thieves have to turn each other into snakes for all eternity. I was barely able to survive that before I had run over the boiling lake of pitch!"

"And then from there the snakes just caused all kinds of problems," continued Elena, brushing some blue hair back from her face. "I was doing missionary work down there when it happened. After the snakes came in, chaos was all over the place. There were no safe spots to hide, though thankfully Cath had managed to get me out of there before anything truly terrible happened..."

"Well, why didn't you use your binding?" asked Fiordiligi.

"There were too many spirits to bind all at once," replied Ike's mother. "To bind the spirits of this circle the way it is, we would need a trap that could bind all of the souls here at exactly the same time..."

"We'll figure out the logistics to that later," said Hades. "So after the light was seen, I'm guessing that Nergal was hoping the rebellion would spread to the upper circles?"

"I think so," said Byron. "Which means we have to stop this rebellion before it gets out of hand."

Ike nodded briefly as he looked at the Greljedan general. "Okay," he said. "So what do we do?"

"First, we've gotta get your friends out of there," replied Byron, waving his hands a little. "They might get caught in the bind if we don't get to them."

"Okay, so then we do that, and what then?" asked Maria with a shrug.

"We need a few people to stay here and prepare the binding trap that they'll set off once we're safe here," replied the general. "Now, I know Elena can do binding, but I'm not sure that's enough."

"Well, if it helps, I can bind as well," mentioned Agniezska.

"And I can do it too," said Fiordiligi, surprising Byron greatly as she said this.

Before he was able to ask, however, Persephone added her own words. "And I can assist them with my power," replied the goddess. "Just the three of them with my power should be enough."

Byron's hazelnut eyes cast a rather bewildered glance at Fiordiligi before he shrugged. "Okay, so that's settled," said Bryon. "Next, we've gotta get out of there and do our thing with a rescue party. Now, I believe Ike and I will be on this team, along with Lloyd, Andrew, Hades, Lyanna, Cath, and the strange mage boy that just woke up."

"My name is Soren," replied the somewhat cross mage.

"Oh..." said the general. "Right... Uh..."

"Wait, what do I do?" asked Maria energetically before Ike calmed her down with a touch to her shoulders.

"I want you to stay here," said the mercenary. "First of all, you need to defend the people doing the binding along with Hertzel. Second, I don't think our baby will forgive you if you go around like that."

Maria looked at Ike with a somewhat dissapointed gleam showing in her soft amethyst eyes before nodding.

"Fine, I'll stay," she said. "But if something happens to you I'm never forgiving you!"

"Right," said Byron. "So, are we clear on what we have to do here?"

"Yep!" replied everybody around him.

"Good," said the general. "Ike, Fiordiligi, Maria, there're some things I'd like to talk to you three about. Everyone else, chill out for now."

The three living people looked at each other strangely before they stood up, the tightly-knit group breaking up into small conversations as they came up to Byron.

"What is it?" asked Fiordiligi.

"Where are Willie, Gaston, and Kuranga?" asked the general quckly.

Maria winced slightly after the menion of Gaston's name, but this did not keep Ike from replying; "Those three?" he asked with a shrug. "Well, Gaston left us after some events happened, and we were separated from Willie and Kuranga when we were pulled here by some invisible hand..."

"Aw, damn it!" cursed Byron angrily. "I knew my aim was slightly off!"

"Wait, so it was you that brought us down here?" asked Maria, frowning.

The punished seducer nodded quickly. "I did it with Elena's help; I was hoping your appearance would get the king of the underworld in on this rebellion," he said. "And I figured since you guys would be here you could help me out. Looks like I was right on both fronts."

"Well, gee, thanks for moving us several years in the future, you ass!" replied Fiordiligi, angry at Byron's actions. "Now the world above is in worse state than before! What else could you have done?"

"Me, a simple soul being forced to march while being whipped by demons for all eternity?" asked Byron, taking offense to the speech of the lady of Jericho. "I couldn't have done shit or else one of the other missionaries would've sent me back. I had no other choice!"

"Well, fine, but pull a stunt like this again and I'm running straight here to slap you hard!" threatened Fiordiligi, raising a hand in anger.

Ike simply placed a shoulder on Fiordiligi's hand, and when the woman glanced over in his direction Ike was able to make out a great rage from within her emerald eyes.

"Calm down, Fiordiligi," said Ike. "Anyways, what's the other thing you wanted to mention?

"It's about Willie," replied Byron. "I'm still shocked by this, but apparently it's true..."

This phrase piqued their curiosities, but Fiordiligi's especially. "What's true?" she asked.

"I'm Willie's father."

Maria, Ike, and Fiordiligi all gawked at this development, their eyes giving off expressions of extreme shock.

"N... no way..." said Maria, the first one to come somewhat over your stupor.

"You're what?" asked Ike.

"I didn't find out until I was judged," replied the general, turning to look out into the lake of boiling pitch. "The judge referred to me as 'Father of the boy with the accent and the birds'. Or something like that, it's been a while.

"But... how?" asked Fiordiligi.

"It must have been a hawk laguz I had met in Gardelia..." replied the general, his gaze fixated on a point at the other side of the lake. "She was, well, a good woman, but she actually wanted to get back to Tardal. I had never heard about her again after that night, though, as I, well, you know..."

"Byron!" cried Fiordiligi angrily. "Why did you leave her?"

"Because that's what I used to do back then," replied the general. "But anyways, I think she gave birth to Willie while I was away... And now I wonder; what would've been different if I had stayed?"

"Well, I think I can forgive you this one time," said Maria with a shrug.

Fiordiligi reared her head at Maria, quite shocked by this statement of forgiveness. "W-what?" asked the woman. "Forgive him? Why?"

"Well, think about it this way," said Ike with a shrug. "Who was the one that left Willie in the streets? Obviously it wasn't Byron since he didn't even know she had a son..."

After thinking about this for a brief second, Fiordiligi nodded slowly.

"You're right!" she said. "So the mother is more to blame than anybody else here for not actually raising the child?"

Byron shook his head at this. "That's assuming the mother left him somewhere in the first place," he rebuked. "But I think it might've happened..."

"I see..." said the lady, looking at Byron. "This is quite shocking!"

"Oh, you're telling me?" asked the general, turning his head to face Fiordiligi. "We're exact opposites and everything!"

"Well, what do you expect?" asked Maria with a rise of her shoulders. "He wasn't raised in the same household as Byron..."

"True," said Fiordiligi with a nod. "Still, I can't help but wonder; how would he have turned out?"

"Probably perverted like Byron," said Ike, indicating the general.

"Wha--? Hey!" exclaimed the general.

The three living people giggled at this outburst quite merrily.


	15. Chapter 15: War in the Seventh Circle 2

Plot developments, go! Shocking developments, go! Action sequences, go!

And with that, we begin the next part of the war in the Seventh Circle of hell. Now let's get on it!

* * *

Chapter 15: War in the Seventh Circle Part 2

Senator Hertzel, Gregor, and Maria were all standing at the entrance to the cave, submerged in it enough so that they were not found on the ground. Fiordiligi, Agniezska, Elena, and Pesephone all stood in a circle outside, all of them beginning to concentrate their power into the gigantic magic circle they had to summon. Inside the cave, Ike and his entourage that were going to brave the ranks to rescue Linus and Greil were preparing themselves for the rush into the action.

"So the signal is that Soren is going to form a giant tornado around this island, right?" asked the mercenary as he swung Ragnell a few times.

"Yep," said Byron. "Hopefully he can see that far..."

"You underestimate my abilities," replied the branded mage coldly as he thumbed through his tornado tome quickly. "At any rate, we should get moving if we want to do this quickly."

"Of course," said Hades, looking back at Maria, Hertzel, and Gregor. "If you guys have anything you want to say, say it now."

At this, Maria walked over to Ike, the hero being careful to not swing his sword at Maria. She then gave him a quick peck on the cheek and held his hand strongly.

"Be careful out there," she said softly. "I don't know what I would do if you failed us..."

"I won't fail you," replied Ike, squeezing the hand of his lover lightly. "I promise."

The depowered laguz smiled before releasing the hand of her lover, her amethyst eyes betraying a rather profound sense of worry. Before Ike could reply, Hades coughed rather brusquely, getting the mercenary's attention.

"We'll have to leave soon," he said.

"Be careful, you guys," said Gregor.

"May the light of Ashera guide you in your trial," added Hertzel with a respectful bow of his head.

"Thanks, I guess," said Andrew before being slapped yet again by Lyanna.

"I guess?" cried the woman, hot pink eyes shining threateningly in the darkness of the cave. "You better take it!"

The rest of the group simply acknowledged the rest of the people with nods before they rushed into the cave, going through its winding passages and hoping to come out on the other side to do battle with the rogue spirits.

* * *

As soon as Ike and his entourage had emerged, Cath scanned the area surrounding them, which was still full of the damned spirits. However, there was something infinitely more sinister about how they stood still around a concentrated point. The thief girl stopped, her naked body blending in with the rest of the crowd as she looked over everybody's heads to see what was going on. Ike and company, who were trying to give chase, were also as quiet as possible to avoid drawing attention to themselves. They hid under the legs and were flanked by Cath and Byron. The mercenary had to wonder how nobody seemed to notice how Ragnell kept on brushing against their legs; he had the feeling it had something to do with their jumping up and down many, many times and how they seemed to be engaged in some kind of strange otherworldly chant.

As his face suddenly collided with Cath's heel, though, Ike was shaken out of his thoughts, the rest of the group stopping after him rather quickly. The female thief then bent down to Ike's level.

"This isn't good!" she said. "You guys should come up for air, see what's going on!"

"Finally!" whispered Lyanna as she stood up. "I'm getting tired of--!"

She immediately stopped her sentence as soon as she and everybody else had stood up, however. For there, tied to a stake, were Greil, and Linus, the two of them both tied and stripped of their garnments and being flogged by two people holding snakes. As they witnessed the unusual punishment, Hades walked forward, moving as close to Ike as he could.

"This is... strange..." said Hades with a confused look on his face. "If you can't kill a man in hell, then why are they--?"

"Oh, dear..." said Byron, noticing who the people that were performing the beating were. "It's the two most brutal souls in the underworld..."

"Who...?" asked Ike, his eyebrow arching up.

"Romulus and Remus..." the general said, shaking his head.

"No--!" said Lloyd quickly. "You mean, those guys that allied themselves with Loki?"

"Loki had allies?" asked Ike, now suddenly a little confused.

"Ah, yes," said Hades softly. "Loki had two friends who helped him find Pandora's Box..."

"And they're these two?" asked the mercenary

He said this as he pointed at the two rather strong individuals beating Greil and Linus so hard their skin had torn apart. The effect given by this was very eerie and disturbing such that Ike could barely take his eyes off of their wounds; the skin was being torn apart and mended back constantly, but the wounds never bled. It was a very unsettling impression that was left in Ike's mind from this, and he was barely able to stop looking at the wounds.

"Yeah," said the king. "And then Loki ditched them and abused them. And when he did that, they too lost their immortality. It was pretty horrible abuse, too..."

"Then why are they down here?" asked Andrew angrily. "They've gone through enough with Loki; who said it was fair to put them down here?"

Lyanna gave a rather surprised expression at this observation from the burned man. "Andrew has a valid point?" she asked bewilderedly. "Has the world finally come to an end or something?"

The branded woman was given a harsh slap to the back of her head, Lloyd scowling at her. "Now's not the time," he said as Lyanna rubbed the back of her head. Andrew could not hold back a snicker at this, and to this the best the hanged woman was able to manage was to shoot a glare at the youth of Renais.

"Andrew's got a point, actually," said Gregor.

"Don't ask me," replied Hades with a shrug. "It wasn't my decision to put them here after they lost their immortality. I would've put them in the underworld proper, personally."

"Well, then the Gods are either really stupid or don't know how to resolve a grudge properly," stated Soren flatly.

"I'd go with the latter," said Hades. "I guess they just got really bitter about being incessantly punished for being duped."

"Trust me, in their position I'd be pretty pissed too," said Byron. "But we're not getting anywhere fast. We've gotta somehow rescue those people from the flogging, and I don't know how that's going to happen."

"I say we charge!" said Cath instantaneously, winking as she said this.

Ike shook his head. "We've gotta come up with something better than that," he said.

"Yeah, especially since we're surrounded by hostile people," added Byron, scratching his chin.

Soren, however, frowned before nodding. "Actually, that seems like a perfectly viable solution," said the tactician simply as he nodded. "If we find ourselves in a hopeless situation, I can always set the signal early and we can get out of here in the chaos that's going to follow..."

Lloyd gave an odd glance at the mage. "Are you sure that's actually going to work as well as we want it too?"

"In his defense, we're actually not too far from another cave in the landscape," said Byron. "It sounds like a good plan. Let's just hope it doesn't fail."

At this, Ike chuckled. "Knowing how Soren is, it's going to have a rather high chance of success..."

"I call dibs on going in there first!" said Cath.

Before anybody could stop her, however, the thief had already moved into the crowd towards the two floggers and the two people being flogged. She finally reached the opening that had opened up between the edge of the crowd, and breaking through it, she prepared herself to jump in. Seeing this, Byron simply smacked himself in the face, groaning in hopelessness as he saw this.

"What the hell is she thinking?" he asked.

Byron never recieved a reply, however, for then Cath darted in, jumping first at the flogger on the left and then the flogger on the right. In two swift motions, she had stolen the snakes from the floggers. Opening their jaws wide, she then slashed at the improvised bindings that the whole circle had come up with by the fangs of the snakes. When the rope was cut with the fangs, she tossed the snakes aside, grabbing hold of both Linus and Greil, and darting back into the crowd before the two floggers knew what had even hit them.

Unfortunately, as this happened, the chanting died down, and suddenly all eyes were on Cath as she led Greil and Linus towards Ike's group. Seeing this, Byron suddenly saw the underworld inhabitants close in on that.

"Oh, no..." said Byron.

He did not have to say anything else; Andrew, Lyanna, and Linus were the first to move, the three of them grabbing on to Linus' arms as they pulled him into a protective bubble that Greil soon joined. The group then began to move towards the caves, slowed down by the clawing at them. The clamor was terrible as they worked their way through the crowd, with Ike swinging Ragnell at the enemies.

However, they hadn't gotten very far when suddenly the sheer amount of hands that were grabbing them was enough to bring them to a stop, the hands grabbing on to anything they could. When they noticed this, they saw the crowd clearing out to the two floggers, both with the same muscular bodies and both with hair the color of the night. Ike turned as well as he could with all of the hands grabbing him.

"What the hell?" asked one of the floggers suddenly. "There's more of these bastards from above? What do you want?"

"We were just going through!" replied Andrew before Lyanna could remind him to keep quiet. "We didn't want to do anything to you! Why the hell won't you just let us through?"

The other twin shook his head, throwing his snake at Andrew, who barely managed to dodge the projectile. "You think we're stupid?" cried the twin angrily. "We know how you binding types work!"

"And you don't think whoever sent that light is gonna double-cross you too?" asked Lloyd quickly.

"Shut up!" replied the brothers angrily. "We're done trying to reason with anybody! Nobody can be trusted, least of all your friends. Now scram before we send your king down to the bottom!"

"Damn it, Romulus!" cried Hades angrily. "You think I wanted you here?"

The two of them looked at the king before nodding. "You didn't do anything to stop them," replied the first twin.

"Well, what did you want me to do?" asked the king, gesturing with his hand as he spoke. "I'd already stolen Persephone from them; I don't want to be in any more disfavor with them, right?"

Ike's head whipped around to look at the king upon hearing this. "You _what_?" cried the disbelieving mercenary at this.

"I don't care if you got stuck here because you eloped with your wife," snarled the second twin. "Your staying out of things was not right!"

"Whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah!" interrupted Lyanna, looking at Hades. "You're saying you stole Persephone and that's why you're in the underworld?"

To this, the king was relatively silent. After a while, he nodded in defeat, the two twins smirking at this.

"I see you're not afraid of admitting it now..." said the first twin as he began pacing in front of them. "I wonder what other vices you did that can be amplified here."

Hades glared up at them, Ike and the rest of the group noticing the fires of true rage burning within his eyes. It was the first time Ike had seen such a determined, angry look in the eyes of the king.

"You think I had an option?" asked the king, hate permeating his voice as he spoke. "Demeter was a self-righteouos bitch who forced her daughter to take a chastity vow against her will! And since those guys don't know how to resolve disputes, I got sent down here with her as the king of this damn place! You think I wanted to force Persephone to something she didn't want to do? We loved each other, and we had no other way out! You think you're so high and mighty with bitterness, do you? Well, I'll bet you anything that I deserve to be angrier than anybody else does in this entire circle combined!"

The king was left panting at the end of the tirade, shocking his comerades and only angering the twins.

"Why, you--!" cried the first twin, running to Hades and grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "You didn't get prosecuted with a choice! You didn't get prosecuted only to be prosecuted again! You... You...!"

Before the angry man could continue, Soren had raised his hand, and the tornado was summoned at a point in the distance. For a few seconds, everybody was distracted by the tornado, the large man letting go of the king as Ike, Lyanna, and Cath all helped him onto his feet the best they could with hands holding them from every direction.

However, as soon as they looked below and saw the tell-tale lighting of the binding circle on the ground beneath them, they instantly panicked. All of a sudden, the hands left the clothes and bodies of Ike's group. Before the two men could say anything else, however, Ike and company were able to run towards the nearest cave to safety.

As soon as they had ducked behind the cave, they saw the half of the magic circle they were closest to rise up in the air like it was rooted to a certain point, only to swivel. The huge trap flew very high into the air, so much that the edges of the circle began to dissapear into the fog above. Ike was quite terrified by the diminishing roars of fright that were dissapearing as the trap seemed to close to another point in the distance. Finally, everything ceased to be altogether, and complete silence reigned over the circle.

"Is... is that it?" asked Ike softly in a bewildered tone.

"Yeah, it is," said Greil softly as he patted his son on the back. "Did I ever tell you how proud I am to be your father?"

Ike blushed slightly as he dug into his mind for an answer. Byron chuckled in good nature, Cath winking at the father and son with a smile on her face as Lloyd and Linus gave each other a rather intense hug. As Greil patted Ike on the shouder after this, he had but one thing to ask.

"Is Elena okay?"

Lloyd nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, she's fine."

"I'm actually more confused about something with Hades," said Ike, looking at the king of the underworld. "What's this about Persephone being your reason for being down here?"

The king sighed before he replied. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to talk about it, but that man brought it up so I might as well..." said Hades dejected.

"So what really happened?" asked Gregor, hoping to prompt the king into words.

"Well, Persephone and I were very much in love," began the king. "But then, her mother forced her to take a chastity vow against her will."

"She did?" asked Andrew, scratching his head. "Why in the world would she make her daughter do such a thing?"

"Because she's a bitch, apparently," said Lyanna, surprised that Andrew had again pointed out something valid.

"So then I eloped with her after that," said Hades. "And after that happened, her mom found out and forced us either to separate or leave."

Lloyd nodded at this, everybody else assuming some form of indifferent response.

"So then what did you do?" asked Ike with a shrug.

"Well, lucky for us, the main god was on our side," replied Hades with a slight smile on his face. "He was building the underworld, and knowing of our dilemma, he offered to make me king of the underworld."

Soren, who had been scratching his chin until this point, found an opportunity to say something. "But you knew what it meant, right?" asked the mage.

"I actually objected at first," added Hades. "But the instant I found out that he was trying to save my marriage to Persephone, I couldn't refuse. So here I am."

"So that means you're not keeping in touch with the other gods because you're bitter about the whole thing...?" asked Linus.

"Actually, it's the other way around," said Hades with a shrug. "Persephone's mother was a bitch about the whole thing, so she stopped all communications between the gods and me. She's the goddess of the harvest, you know; she's got a lot of power to end life on earth if her demands aren't met."

To this, Greil chuckled nervously, shaking his head. "You weren't kidding when you said they didn't know how to resolve conflicts..."

"Because it's true," continued Hades. "They overblow their problems way too much. Anyways, we need to get back to the rest of the group, so let's go."

Without much else said, the group advanced down the caves. After standing still for a few seconds in bewilderment, Ike followed rather closely behind, not wanting to get lost in the darkness.

* * *

When Ike and the group arrived, they found Maria, Hertzel, and Gregor outside on the island that the group had originally met up at. Agniezska, Elena, and Persephone were all around a point along with the three guardians, watching over something. As soon as Ike saw this, he rushed forward, looking into the group to find Fiordiligi lying there unconscious, her head resting against a rock as Elena held her staff up over her wounds.

"My goddess!" swore Ike as he saw her. He then faced his mother, distress in his eyes. "Is she going to be all right?"

Elena nodded, looking down at Fiordiligi. "It took a lot of power to power that circle," she replied. "But she'll be all right. Hopefully there will be nothing else that affects her..."

"I hope so..." said Ike, looking down at her.

"Elena!" cried Greil from the entrance of the cave. "You're okay!"

Quickly turning her head, Elena caught sight of her husband, and was quite relieved by his presence. Before she could do anything, though, she found herself get swept up in the captain's arms almost as quickly as he got to her.

"Greil, you're all right!" replied the female with a smile on her face.

"I was worried, too!" exclaimed Greil simply, holding Elena closer to his large frame. "I didn't believe you were stuck in all this!"

Ike shrugged as he patted both his mom and his father on their shoulders. The two parents looked down on their son , all of them smiling at each other. No words were needed as they engaged in a group hug, the rest of the group coming out of the cave right at this rather tender moment.

"Hey!" cried Maria. Ike, Greil, and Elena all broke their hug, looking at Maria with confused looks on their faces. "You're not gonna forget the mom of Ike's baby, are you?"

At this, Ike and Greil both let out an audible 'uhm'. To this, Elena gave an expression first of slight disgust before a stern expression took on her face and she looked at Ike.

"Ike!" she said, drawing out the 'I' as she spoke.

Ike and Greil both brought their palms to their faces, a resounding smack sounding from this action. As Maria chuckled nervously, Hades simply shook his head.

Things were not going to be too good within the family, after all.


	16. Chapter 16: To Cocytus

And now we get back to the main journey of getting to the eigth circle. So here, we had Fiordiligi passing out from the amount of energy needed, right? Well, there's an extra side effect from that... (oh noes!)

So with that, let's get this chapter started.

* * *

Chapter 16: To Cocytus

"And... that's pretty much how it happened..."

"I see..."

"Mom, I..."

"Darling, you're my son, and you know I'll always love you no matter what you do. The only reason I would be dissapointed is if you left Maria. You two are in this together; always go wher she goes, even if it's in the face of danger."

"Thanks, mom."

Ike then hugged Elena rather tenderly. The two of them had been conversing about Maria and her pregnancy on the island. Everybody had been watching them, so that was cause for some nervous ticks to come out from both of them. Thankfully, though, mother and son were able to make a good situation out of tension, so everything was fine.

A slight cough sounded from behind them at that time, and then Cath, who had been looking over Fiordiligi at that point in time, looked at the rest of the group on the small island.

"She's wakin' up!" she cried. "Get over here, quick!"

As soon as the thief from Elibe had said this, everybody gathered around the lady of Jericho. Soon enough, she was on her forearms, and after rubbing her eyes ever so gingerly, she opened them to the world. And right away, everybody noticed something wrong with Fiordiligi's eyes. It was as if her eyes had greyed over for some reason.

"Oh, Fiordiligi!" said Andrew, bowing his head in relief. "You're awake! I thought you were a goner!"

"Andrew?" asked the woman, her head darting in Andrew's direction. When her eyes failed to move as well, the group knew something was up.

"Fiordiligi, are you okay?" asked Ike.

"Ike?" asked the lady, holding her hands out in front of her. "Is that you?"

"Fiordiligi?" asked Maria, concern taking over her face. "Is... is something wrong...?"

"Are... are my eyes open?" asked Fiordiligi. "I can't see a thing..."

Almost instantly, everybody on the little island knew what had happened to the lady. Andrew simply looked at Lyanna in disbelief, to which the branded woman only gave a simple nod, her own expression solemn. Byron was simply aghast at this, and he and Maria both locked eyes with each other in shock.

"Oh, no..." said Ike, shaking his head at how much he could not believe what he was seeing. "Fiordiligi... your eyes... they're open..."

A strange kind of sadness took over the lady's face, emerald eyes now dimmed a little. Finally, a tear fell down her cheeks.

"I'm never going to see Willie with my eyes again, aren't I?" she asked, eyes watering with tears. "I'm never... I... I wanted to see Willie again! Now I'm... This can't be..."

To this, nobody had a reply. Maria simply gathered the now-blind woman into her arms. Feeling this, the lady of Jericho began to cry into the laguz' shoulder without abandon, with Maria patting her back occasionally. Ike simply shook his head, unable to figure out what to do for his friend.

* * *

Some time later, the group had become accustomed to Fiordiligi's newfound blindness. When they tried to get her to move around, they found that Fiordiligi was quite adept at catching on, using her staff as a sort of cane to figure out where things were. However, Maria still felt a responsibility to lead her around, so when they had left the island Maria was holding the lady's wrist to guide her every move. Finally, the group had made it to the outskirts of Cocytus. Ike looked down into a hole with slanted walls and simply felt a blast of cold air hit his body.

"It's cold..." he said as he approached the hole.

"Ha!" scoffed Persephone briefly. "Wait until you are inside! Then you'll see how cold it is!"

"That's not a good sign, is it?" asked Fiordiligi.

"No," said Hades, shaking his head. He then turned over to Persephone.

"Well, we've got a lot of people down there, no doubt," said the king. "What're we gonna do now with the decietful?"

Persephone waved her hand indifferently. "No matter," she said. "It is so terribly frigid down there they'll be lucky to have some rest."

"Right..." said Hades. "You mind if I send you back to the underworld with some people?"

"Of course not," replied the queen of the underworld.

"Okay then," said Hades. "Agniezska, I want you to go back to the underworld proper with Persephone."

"What?" cried Fiordiligi, her head darting in the direction of Hades. "Why?"

Agnieszka patted Fiordiligi on the shoulder. "Well, I've taught you everything you really need to know," she began. "And you've passed the greatest test of your skills with that. I'm amazed you came out of that alive; such an effort would kill most others. You're really lucky to have a guy like Willie if he's as good as you say he is; I think your determination alone pulled you through..."

"Agniezska..." sighed the woman almost wistfully. "Thanks... for everything."

"Nothing to it," replied the woman, turning to Hades. "So, when I get there, what do I do?"

"Okay," said Hades, turning to the three denizens of the seventh circle. "Byron, Cath, Hertzel, I want you to go with the two of them. Once you get there, I want you and Persephony to rewrite their spirit signs."

At this, confused glances were shot right towards the king of the underworld. "Rewritten spirit signs?" asked Elena suddenly. "You're... pardoning them?"

"Hey, they deserve it," said Hades with a shrug. "They're good people."

"So, that means we don't have to wallow in our misery anymore?" asked Byron, now shocked at this as much as Cath and Hertzel were.

"Nope," replied the king with a smile. "Aside from the fact that you helped us all get to this point, you seem to have good hearts."

"Aw, thanks, sir!" replied Cath with a smile.

"What do we do up there, then?" asked the elderly Senator softly.

"You get to send other, much less worthy souls back down here," said Agniezska as she walked towards Persephone. "For now, we'll leave it at that until we get up."

"That'll be fun, I bet..." said Byron, rubbing his hands together. "Anybody else you want to send us up with?"

"No," replied Hades. "I'll take the rest of the group down here."

"But I'll freeze up, won't I?" asked Soren, pointing at his still-drenched robes that would remain such for all eternity. The king of the underworld looked Soren over briefly, noticing that the branded mage was right. "Besides, everybody is frozen down there, so my strategy will not be needed."

"Huh," he said simply. "You're right. I guess I should send you up with the rest of them, shouldn't I?"

"Well, I... kind of wanted to say goodbye to Ike first..." said the mage.

Ike simply shrugged and walked over to the mage. When he got there, the hero of Tellius pulled his friend into a tight hug. Soren was caught off guard by this, but he was able to wrap his own arms around Ike a short while later.

"I'll miss ya, Soren," said Ike softly.

"I'll wait for whenever you come back..." replied the mage softly. "Be careful out there, and don't come back too early, you hear?"

"I hear you," replied Ike with a slight chuckle as he patted his hand against Soren's back.

The two of them parted in their hug before Soren walked over to where Persephone stood, nodding to the queen of the underworld.

"Anybody else?" asked Persephone, taking on her human form as she asked.

"No, that's all," said Hades. "I'll get everybody else back once we see these guys off to the realm of the living."

"All right, then," replied Persephone. "I'll see you soon."

With this, Persephone waved her arms in the air, and after creating a mystical sign with golden light, she, Agniezska, Byon, Cath, Hertzel, and Soren all disappeared from sight. As soon as they were gone, Ike turned straight to Hades with a glare on his face.

"And we couldn't just do that because...?" asked the mercenary immediately.

"Because it doesn't work when you try to enter any circle below the one you're in," replied the king.

"Eh, we were able to stop a rebellion down here," said Maria with a shrug. "So in a way, it's a good thing, right?"

"Did they warp or something?" asked Fiordiligi almost quickly.

"Uh, yeah," replied Andrew. "Anyways, we should get down there, right?"

"Indeed," said Hades with a nod. "Maria, Ike, Fiordiligi, prepare yourselves, because it's gonna be really cold down in the eigth circle."

Without another word, the group followed Hades, who slowly descended by climbing down the slanted wall of the hole. Ike's heart knotted in anticipation, wondering what the giant lake of Cocytus was going to be like.


	17. Chapter 17: Return to the World

And we're back, heading into the last circle of hell. We move straight into the real world after this, thus making this the only book in the epic that lacks an epilogue. So here we go, running straight towards the middle of hell, where our heroes get sent to Elibe.

So since our heroes have been stranded in the underworld, we've had quite a passage of time. So let's get moving, shall we? On with the final chapter of this book!

* * *

Chapter 17: Return to the World

As soon as Ike's foot touched the bottom of the hole, he looked around him in the darkness, Maria grabbing hold of Ike's wrist.

The sight that was seen was the most beautiful sight Ike had encountered on their journeys. The entire bottom of hell was essentially ice; they stood on ice, and stalagmites of ice protruted from the lake at odd intervals. The darkness sort of created an almost ethereal effect on the circle with how the small amount of light that was there was constantly being refracted off of the ice; Ike would have thought it was a cavern of crystals if not for how absolutely cold it was in that circle. The scene was also so beautiful that it was a little jarring as people supposedly got the worst punishments in this most beautiful circle of hell.

"My..." said Maria, leading Fiordiligi along as she somehow found she was able to stand perfectly straight on the ice. "It's beautiful..."

"What I want to know is how we're not slipping on this ice..." said Gregor as he looked down at his feet.

"It's too cold for it to be that slippery," said Hades as he noticed how cold Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi seemed to be. "You guys need some extra warmth?"

"D-d-do we ever!" replied Fiordiligi, her teeth chattering as she huddled to Ike and Maria for warmth.

The king of the underworld assumed human form and then began to wave his arms around wildly. As a grey light was reflected and refracted thousands of different ways in the ice, a flme suddenly materialized by Ike and his two friends. The flame hovered around them rather quickly, somehow not being put out by the sheer cold of the circle and the velocity it was hovering around them at. As the flame hovered around, Ike and his two friends felt much more relieved and relaxed a little.

"Oh, much better," said Ike with a contented sigh.

"Indeed," said Fiordiligi.

Hades shrugged at this. "We've wasted enough time here," he said simply. "We need to get moving; we've been in this world for nearly ten days now, and we can't afford to waste any more time."

"Right," said Ike as the group began to move. "Where does that leave us in mortal time?"

"Roughly twelve and a half years," replied Greil. "So you should get going once you're back in the real world."

"By that point, Willie will have aged a little more..." replied Fiordiligi, saddened as she walked around.

"We'll tell you what he looks like," stated Maria consolingly, patting Fiordiligi's shoulder as she led her friend around.

"Thanks..." said the female softly.

The group progressed slowly. As they moved on, however, Ike noticed the main method of punishment; he saw many, many bodies that were encased in the ice below them. Some were submerged so that their necks were covered, their eyes sealed shut by frozen tears. Others were encased completely in the ice, with some having only the hairs on their heads sticking out of the ice. As he looked at this, he turned to Elena.

"And who gets punished here?" he asked.

"Traitors," said his mother. "All people that have betrayed people close to them are here."

"So that means Alfonso would be here..." said Fiordiligi, suddenly grinning quite evilly.

Andrew patted Fiordiligi's shoulder, taking care to stay out of the way of the flame that threatened to singe his death-scar even more than it already was. "I would think so," he said. "I wonder what he looked like..."

"He was an old man, quite lanky, with a good head of white hair," replied Fiordiligi. "And to boot, he's the only person I know who has silver eyes."

Soon after this was said, a squeal was heard from the group's left, and all heads turned to Lyanna, who looked back at the group with a shrug.

"I just took care of stepping on his hair for you," stated the branded woman quite simply.

At this, Fiordiligi chuckled, the group continuing on. "Thanks," said the woman of Jericho appreciatively.

"What did he do to you?" asked Lloyd.

"It's a touchy subject," said Maria, opening her mouth to avoid a potential rant from Fiordiligi that would only waste time. "We'd rather not talk about it. For now, let's just say he turned the person that Fiordiligi cared for most against her."

"Besides Willie?" poked Linus jokingly.

"S-shut up!" shouted a flustered Fiordiligi. The woman blushed madly as they continued walking, and while this would be seen as comedy the darkness was so overpowering the blush went unnoticed.

Most of the rest of the way to the center of hell was spent in silence, everybody gazing at the scenery around them. As they moved, Ike could not help but feel a slight sense of dismay as they moved along, wondering how it was that the criminals punished here were in the most beautiful part of hell.

* * *

Finally, after another half an hour of journeying, Maria began to notice the amount of bodies in the ice lessening. Eventually, after she saw the last body, the group arrived at a large hole in the lake of ice. Ike and Maria both peered down into the hole, the rest of the group following their lead as well.

"So this is it, huh?" asked Maria as her amethyst eyes peered into the inky blackness beneath. "We jump in here and we get transported to the real world again?"

"Yes," said Hades as he looked down in his light form. "We've got no time to waste. Say your goodbyes, and as soon as your done you'll have to jump in there."

"Thanks," said Ike, the two of them turning back to face the group, Fiordiligi trying to look with her blind eyes but not seeing anything.

Andrew and Gregor were the first to move close.

"Well, what can we say?" asked Andrew. "You guys were awesome. I can't believe I tried to send you down here when I first met Ike and Fiordiligi!"

"Neither can I!" replied Fiordiligi with a laugh. "Looking back, it's funny..."

Gregor simply shrugged. "Well, again, what can we say?" asked Gregor. "I hope you guys don't get into hell."

"We won't, trust me," replied Ike with a wink. "That's a promise."

"All right," said Andrew. He then moved over to hug Fiordiligi in a rather quick manner. The native of Renais was not expecting Fiordiligi to hug him back, but when she did he felt rather good about it. When they parted, Andrew nodded to the rest of them. "If you see Seth again, give him my regards."

"Sure," replied Ike with a nod.

Andrew and Gregor then retreated into the small crowd, with Lyanna, Linus, and Lloyd coming forward.

"I don't think I've ever met a beorc and laguz couple with as much spirit as you two," began Lyanna, indicating Ike and Maria. "You two better stay together!"

To this, Ike chuckled good-humoredly. "Trust me, we don't plan on separating any time soon!" he said simply. "Especially not since we're gonna have a baby."

"The best of luck with him or her, then," replied Lloyd curteously with a nod.

"I think you'll make great parents!" added Linus with a smile. "Especially you, Maria."

Maria shrugged, letting her hands rest on the bump in her belly that had been growing ever so steadily. "I hope so..." she said.

"Oh, who are you kidding?" asked Lyanna loudly. "You'll make great parents!"

"Just don't come to us too early, all right?" asked Linus with a wink.

"I won't," said Ike with a polite nod.

"Good," said Lloyd as the three of them retreated. "If you did, I don't know what we'd do with you!"

As soon as they were away, Greil and Elena both walked over to Ike. The mercenary unexpectedly jumped on both of them, hugging them both as hard as he could. All Ike was able to feel afterwards was the wrapping of his parents' arms around him, knowing that he knew that his parents were proud of him for his accomplishments. They held each other for a rather long period of time, not daring to say anything. Anything that needed to be said had already been said, and anything that had been left over needed no explaining between the three of them. They simply held each other as long as they could, content to be in this position for as long as they could be.

Finally, after a while, the happy family parted again, Greil and Elena both smiling at their son as they stepped back.

"If either of you see Mist, tell her we miss her," said the mercenary captain as Ike nodded in reply.

"I will," he said. "If I ever see her again, that is..."

There was a brief silence for a while as they looked at the ball that was Hades.

"Okay, I think we're ready," said Maria.

"Okay," said Hades. "Jump into the hole, and hang on to each other when you do! If you don't, you'll have to find each other, and I don't think you'll want to get separated again..."

Ike and Maria nodded to this. Ike grabbed a hold of Maria's hand as the cat laguz took a better hold on Fiordiligi's wrist. After a brief wave back to the dead people, the three living people jumped into the portal. Ike blacked out instantly upon touching the portal, but he still knew that he would be back in the world of the living.

* * *

**_Coming Up..._**

**_Ike, Maria, and Fiordiligi are thrust into the continent of Elibe, now a wasteland twelve and a half years after the three of them last set foot on the world of the living. As Ike and his companions suddenly find themselves toying with the timeline to produce the best result, loyalties are tested and emotions run around unchecked. The quest for a correct timeline is never an easy one, and Ike and his friends will learn so the hard way._**

**_Book 4: The Butterfly Effect_**

* * *

A/N: I'll be honest, writing this was my least favorite part of the whole epic. I promise it'll get much better in the next book, though. Filler books are awful, but action books are cool.

So by now, I trust you guys to know what to do. I'll see you next time!

-Herr Wozzeck


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